Hexa eVTOL aircraft reaches new flight milestone

Brad Bollig and Luke Reddaway, LIFT team members, secure batteries to the Hexa aircraft’s motors before its first flight. The Hexa team completed the aircraft’s flight test at Duke Field via remote control. Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force, Samuel King Jr.

LIFT Aircraft’s (Austin, Texas, U.S.) Hexa electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft successfully completed its first test flight at the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Duke Field mid-July, an auxiliary field located north of the Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida. The company was awarded a Phase 3 contract through USAF’s Agility Prime program in April 2022.

The flight was completed by Hexa 09, one of two aircraft stationed at the installation, with Hexa 05 used for the first test flight at Eglin AFB in April. According to LIFT, the composites-intensive, single-seater unmanned aircraft, piloted via remote control, used 18 motors and propellers to fly for approximately 10 minutes and reach a height of about 50 feet during the test flight. The test proved an important first step toward incorporating Hexa into operations at a controlled military airfield for future public and military applications.

The 413th Flight Test Squadron, the Air Force’s rotary wing developmental test experts, has partnered with AFWERX’s Agility Prime program to advance eVTOL test and experimentation. The unit, located at Duke Field, provides the coordination, logistics and support for the LIFT team’s developmental ground and flight-testing operations.

“This is an opportunity to leverage some of the unit’s expertise with rotary aircraft and apply it to this new field of electric propulsion aircraft,” Maj. Riley Livermore, 413th FLTS Futures Flight commander, says. “This flight was an important step in advancing the testing forward.”