On August 6, 2026, Ampaire, a startup developing hybrid-electric regional aircraft, announced that it had started its participation in the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) program of the US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration.
These flight tests are taking place in the state of Utah under a specific initiative called uFLY, part of the aforementioned eIPP program.
As a result, on August 3, 2026, Ampaire ferried its EEL aircraft to Salt Lake City, Utah, from Long Beach, California, a distance of 648 miles (1,042 kilometers), which it covered in 4 hours 18 minutes using a single battery charge.
Three days later, on August 6, 2026, the EEL, a modified Cessna 337 Skymaster retrofitted with a hybrid-electric powertrain, flew a further hour and 45 minutes, to cover the 240 miles (386 kilometres) that separate Salt Lake City from Cedar City, in southwestern Utah.
The itinerary was completed with the return flight to Ampaire’s base in Long Beach.
During the program, the startup and state officials will assess the operational readiness and infrastructure needs that will be required to introduce hybrid-electric regional air routes within Utah and across the neighboring states.
An Ampaire press release announced the commencement of the uFLY program and described the specificities of hybrid-electric operations in Utah. Within the press release, Ampaire test pilot Zack Kraus said: “Over Utah’s mountainous terrain and high-density-altitude conditions, the additional electric boost power helped us climb through conditions that would have been much more limiting in a conventional-engine-only configuration.”
The uFLY program is one of eight projects selected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to push onward with the development of advanced air mobility in the United States.
Ampaire is planning to follow up with additional test flights in Utah, using an Eco Caravan aircraft, a Cessna Grand Caravan airframe retrofitted with an AMP-H570 hybrid-electric propulsion system. A step up in technological terms from the EEL prototype, this is intended to be Ampaire’s first commercial product.