Hartzell Propeller has been awarded US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 35 certification for the first propeller designed for advanced air mobility applications.
Testing was conducted with customer Beta Technologies – which will use the propeller aboard its Alia CX300 and A250 electric aircraft – using the latter’s in-house-developed electric motors.
The approval comes after thousands of hours of ground and flight testing over four years.
Evaluations of the propeller – a five-bladed, fixed-pitch, pusher design – took place both on Beta’s aircraft and on multiple test stands.
Testing included novel load cases, such as regeneration, effectively using the propeller as a wind turbine to recharge the aircraft’s batteries.
Ice ingestion testing was also conducted, aiding Beta’s goal to certificate the Alia as an instrument flight rules-capable platform.
Beta is targeting FAA Part 33 certification of its 575hp (430kW) electric propulsion system later this year, a process that should benefit from the endurance testing carried out with the propeller.
Certification of the conventional take-off and landing CX300 is targeted by end-2026 or early 2027, to be followed later that year by the vertical take-off and landing Alia A250.
Following its debut at June’s Paris air show, a CX300 demonstrator has been performing a tour of Europe ahead of delivery to customer Bristow Norway.
On 21 July, the aircraft (N214BT) arrived at Sonderborg airport in Denmark following a 46min flight from Hamburg, Germany.
Sonderborg is the 19th stop on a ‘Grand Tour’ that has taken in multiple locations in France, Luxembourg, Germany and Denmark since the CX300 departed Paris Pontoise on 24 June.
