Cooperative Research and Development Agreement

The FAA and Electra.aero Inc. entered into a multi-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) on May 14, 2026, to exchange aircraft performance data and conduct joint research on the integration of Electra’s ultra short/short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft into the National Airspace System. Research might include NAS concerns, such as Airspace and Air Traffic Management, Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, and Safety, including, but not limited to, relations to Vertiports, Noise, and Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight. In addition, research involving mid-term and mature-term areas, such as Autonomy, extensible traffic management (xTM), and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight could also be pursued. Ryan King from the Airport Emerging Technologies section (ANG-E263) is the principal investigator (PI) and has been working closely with Electra's technology development team to establish a phased set of initial research experiments related to vertical flight infrastructure. Phase 1 is expected to begin in summer 2026 with initial flight testing with the EL2 aircraft to quantify takeoff distance, landing/stopping distance, and lateral dispersions at the point of touchdown across a variety of environmental conditions and flight configurations. Phase 2 will build upon the results of Phase 1 and is anticipated to occur in more complex operational airport environments. Phase 3 is designed to conduct additional testing with Electra's larger, 10-seat aircraft (EL9). The expected outputs of these initial experiments will include guidance for the sizing, location, and marking of landing/takeoff areas for Ultra Short/STOL operations. Additional expected topics may include guidance on approach and takeoff gradients/slopes, touchdown and lift-off speeds, and flight pattern definition.

Ryan King | ANG-E263