Electra today announced plans to establish its first production facility for the EL9 Ultra Short in the City of Springfield, within Clark County.
The company said the $850 million investment will create 1,975 new jobs, anchor production of the EL9 Ultra Short and help meet demand for Direct Aviation, a new category of accessible, point-to-point air mobility. The EL9 Ultra Short is a nine-passenger fixed-wing aircraft that uses hybrid-electric propulsion and blown-lift technology to take off and land in as little as 150 feet. The new facility will be located at AirPark Ohio, adjacent to Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport.
"Electra is opening a new era of aviation, one where flight is direct, accessible, and closer to the communities it serves," said Electra CEO Marc Allen in a statement. "This agreement is the moment that our vision moves from demonstration into reality. In Springfield and Clark County, we found the rare combination this next era requires: a ready site, a skilled workforce, a deep aerospace and defense ecosystem, and state and local leaders with the commitment and vision to build it with us. We are grateful to the City of Springfield, Clark County, and the State of Ohio for welcoming Electra into this community as we prepare to bring the EL9 Ultra Short into production, through certification, and ultimately into service."
Electra selected the site following a year-long competitive national site-selection process that evaluated more than 140 potential locations. Criteria included workforce availability, infrastructure readiness, long-term expansion capacity, state and local partnership, incentives, and proximity to the aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing talent needed to support EL9 Ultra Short production.
The new 96-acre facility will house production of the EL9 Ultra Short. The initial phase of development will start immediately with design, while construction of the facility will begin next year. The initial phase will support capacity for up to 400 aircraft per year. A second phase of development will expand capacity to up to 800 aircraft per year.
The company chose the Dayton-Springfield region because it offers advanced air mobility (AAM) companies a combination of assets found nowhere else in the country. Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport is home to the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence (NAAMCE) and SkyVision, the FAA-approved ground-based detect-and-avoid system that enables beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight testing in unrestricted airspace, which allows companies to move from concept to flight test faster than anywhere else in the nation. That infrastructure is complemented by growing AAM production near Dayton International Airport and the region's proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which together form one of the deepest concentrations of aerospace R&D talent in the world.
