Beta Technologies was incorporated in 2017 in Burlington, Vermont by Kyle Clark, an experienced pilot, engineer and entrepreneur. In order to become the company's first test pilot, he learned to fly helicopters, and earned FAA qualifications for a
powered lift rating. United Therapeutics awarded Beta a $48 million contract. On May 23, 2018, the company made the first tethered flight of its original 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) Ava XC eight motor, eight propeller battery-operated proof of concept aircraft. In June, the company unveiled its second aircraft prototype,
ALIA A250. In March 2021, the ALIA A250 made a test flight from Plattsburgh, New York, across Lake Champlain to Burlington, Vermont. In April,
United Parcel Service (UPS) entered into a contract for ten A250 aircraft to be supplied in 2024, which included the option for UPS to acquire up to 150 more aircraft. UPS announced it planned to have them travel directly to and from UPS facilities, rather than use airports. In April,
Blade Urban Air Mobility made a commitment to purchase up to 20 ALIA aircraft, becoming BETA's first passenger service company. In May, the U.S. Air Force's Public Affairs office announced that Beta Technologies was granted the Air Force's first airworthiness certificate as a part of the
AFWERX Agility Prime program, allowing the military to begin using the company's aircraft for test flights. In July, the company completed a crewed flight of its aircraft, its longest flight up to that point. For longer-range military applications, a hybrid solution using an onboard diesel-powered electricity generator to supply the engines is under development. After a long deployment flight, for example, the generator could be detached and be used as a ground base to supply power for short flights. The company announced on January 31, 2022, that it had won a U.S. Army contract to support flight testing of its ALIA electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The partnership is designed to help the Army test specific military cargo and logistics missions for eVTOLs, while allowing Beta to accelerate development for both military and civil applications. Initially, Army engineers and Beta's team would evaluate how ALIA might best be applied to specific missions by measuring its range, altitude, endurance, and payload limits. In March 2022, the company hosted the
United States Air Force and USAF test pilots flew the ALIA aircraft for the first time. In April 2022, aircraft lessor
Lease Corporation International placed an order for fifty ALIA aircraft, and in August that year, vertical lift aircraft operator
Bristow Helicopters ordered five ALIA with options for an additional fifty. In May 2022, an ALIA aircraft completed a flight of in total, from New York State to Arkansas. This included stops along the way for recharging on the company's network. The ALIA was included in
X-Plane 12, desktop simulation software developed by
Laminar Research, in October 2022. In December 2022, an ALIA completed another test flight after traveling to
UPS Worldport, where its founder was met by U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Pete Buttigieg. The same month, the company completed a FAA-sponsored battery
drop test with the
National Institute of Aviation Research as part of
crashworthiness determination for the eVTOL industry. Also in December, BETA was selected as one of four developers to be a part of
Air New Zealand’s Mission Next Generation aircraft program. By the end of 2022, the company had begun to repurpose an
Energizer Battery plant in
St. Albans, Vermont for use as its primary battery validation facility. In March 2023, the company sought FAA certification for a conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant of its ALIA aircraft, dubbed the CX300, and had received orders for the new product from Bristow, Air New Zealand, and United Therapeutics. The company said that FAA test pilots had flown the aircraft during a qualification evaluation earlier that year. In October 2023, the company opened a production facility at
Burlington International Airport. This is reportedly capable of producing up to 300 aircraft per year, with a planned Phase II buildout intended to double in size. In April 2024, the ALIA A250 aircraft completed a piloted transition, going from hover to wing-borne flight and then back to hover before landing. Also that month, the company announced that it had received certification for its 320 kW "charge cube" from the
Underwriters Laboratory. In July 2024, the company completed several military exercises in collaboration with the Department of Defense, for the Air Force and Air National Guard, including cargo transport and a
medivac simulation. In September 2024, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agreed a $20 million contract with the company to install its chargers at 22 sites across the East and Gulf coasts. Also that month, BETA unveiled the prototype of its five-passenger ALIA aircraft. and in October the company raised $318 million of new investment, led by
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, which brought its total capital to over $1 billion. By the end of 2024, Metro Aviation had placed an order for 20 ALIA aircraft, as one of the first air medical service providers in the U.S. to add eVTOL aircraft to its fleet. The New Zealand Air Ambulance Service had also ordered two A250. BETA was granted a multipurpose special
airworthiness certificate by the FAA for its first CX300 production aircraft which then performed its maiden test flight with CEO Kyle Clark at the helm. In April 2025, this aircraft conducted a six-week demonstration tour of the U.S., registered as N916LF. It departed from the company’s test facility in Plattsburgh, New York, flew through snowstorms and desert heat, then returned to South Burlington, Vermont. One leg of the trip involved landing at the busy
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport under
instrument flight rules. In June, N916LF made the first electric-powered passenger-carrying flight in the U.S. by taking four people from
East Hampton, Long Island to New York’s
John F. Kennedy International Airport. In October of that year, Air New Zealand also began test flights of a CX300 based at
Hamilton Airport. This four-month program using 12 airports completed over of cargo flights. The Norwegian testing ended in January 2026 after over 100 flights with cargo had used a charging infrastructure adapted to winter conditions there. Beta Technologies completed its
initial public offering on the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "BETA" in November 2025, raising over $1 billion and valuing the company at around $7.4 billion. In Scotland in March 2026,
Loganair and
Royal Mail trialled an ALIA CX300 for postal deliveries to
Orkney and other Scottish islands. == Technology ==