Electra plans an $850M Ohio factory for its ultra-short hybrid plane
Aircraft startup Electra plans to invest around $850 million to build a factory in Ohio, giving the maker of hybrid-electric ultra-short takeoff and landing aircraft its first dedicated production base.
It would place Electra in the same state as electric air taxi rival Joby, which is already building a scaled plant in Dayton.
Ohio has courted advanced air mobility firms hard as regulators keep clearing US airspace for air taxis, and Joby has said its Dayton site could eventually employ around 2,000 people.
Electra, based in Manassas, Virginia, has spent the past year expanding its engineering headcount rather than its factory floor, so a plant on this scale would mark a real shift. The company employed roughly 90 people at the last count, split between Virginia and a research site in Switzerland.
The aircraft it wants to build is the EL9, a nine-seat design Electra calls an “ultra short”...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to thenextweb.com. To see the full text click HERE
