BETA Technologies Flies All-Electric ALIA CTOL in Utah to Move Time-Critical Medical Isotopes

BETA Technologies has wrapped up a five-day stretch of electric aircraft flights in Utah, using the campaign to examine whether battery-powered planes can carry medical cargo that spoils quickly, such as radiopharmaceuticals employed in cancer imaging and therapy.

The effort took place within the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), run by the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. Working alongside the Utah Department of Transportation, the aerospace industry group 47G and regional cargo carrier Alpine Air Express, BETA deployed its all-electric ALIA CTOL — a conventional take-off and landing design — to show how electric aviation might slot into medical supply chains across a state defined by long stretches of road and difficult terrain.

Speed is the whole point. Radiopharmaceuticals carry radioactive isotopes that steadily lose potency, so their useful window is short. BETA pointed to fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a tracer used in cancer imaging, which sheds roughly half of its activity in about 110 minutes. Alpine Air already flies such treatments on longer routes with conventional aircraft; the Utah trial is meant to establish whether electric aircraft can take over selected legs and possibly open delivery to communities that today sit outside the network.

Data gathered during the flights covered flight times, dispatch reliability, turnaround and charging durations, weather behaviour, aircraft performance and operating costs. Those figures will feed into an assessment of which routes and operating environments actually suit electric aircraft, rather than treating electrification as a blanket solution.

The Utah work continues an existing relationship between BETA and the state on electric aviation and charging infrastructure. In January 2025 the company and 47G announced a partnership aimed at building an advanced air mobility network in Utah ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics. BETA is also one of the most active participants in the national eIPP, with a role in seven of the eight selected programmes and prior operational missions in Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas and North Carolina.