Beta Technologies is a fresh company tackling the eVTOL market with their Alia aircraft. The company is one of two companies alongside Joby Aviation that have been selected by the USAF to advance in their next development stage. 

The Alia is a very sleek aircraft with four horizontally mounted rotors for vertical flight and a rear-facing propeller to move forward. It draws inspiration from the Arctic tern, a bird known for migrating 40,000 km from the northern Arctic all the way down to Antarctica. While other rotors use movable rotors, the Alia uses fixed rotors for increased reliability as fewer moving parts mean fewer complications. 

Beta Technologies released a limited amount of technical information but from what we have gathered so far, it is planned to fly a distance of 400km with one hour of charge. Alia has a 15m wingspan and a total takeoff weight of 2721 kg. The company is also considering having charging locations along the most common routes, hoping it would create an ecosystem where the Alia could freely fly around with very little downtime. As you are reading this, Beta Technologies is currently conducting further testing and developing Alia.