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SOUTH BURLINGTON — The president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States was in Vermont Tuesday to tour the Beta Technologies electric aircraft manufacturing facility at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport off Williston Road that it helped build with a $169 million loan.
Reta Jo Lewis, who is also chair of the board of directors of the bank, wanted to see firsthand how the loan the bank provided to Beta in November was being put to use, creating jobs and producing products for export, the mission of the bank. The bank serves as the official export credit agency of the United States.
Beta has already signed a deal to provide electric aircraft to Air New Zealand and has other potential customers in countries such as India, Japan and Canada.
“We work every day in support of U.S. jobs facilitating exports,” Lewis said. “We can make it in America and we can export it from America.”
A high standard of quality drives Beta to use U.S. suppliers
Lewis was joined by Kyle Clark, founder and chief executive officer of Beta, and Owen Herrnstadt, a member of the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. Clark said he was proud to answer Herrnstadt’s questions as the trio toured the factory floor.
“He was asking where the machinings were being made, where the semi-conductors were from, where the carbon fiber was being molded as those pieces of the supply chain were coming together to do the final assembly here,” Clark said. “We were proud to answer Salt Lake, Dallas, Michigan, New York, coming out of the D.C. area. A lot of the pieces and parts of our airplane are strategically domestically sourced.”
More: Electric airplane builder Beta Technologies is hiring and ushering in a new age of aviation
Clark explained that aerospace has a high standard of quality that requires being very engaged with the supply chain and vice-versa.
“So it drives to a more domestic supply chain and also makes for a lot of pride in the products we’re producing in this facility,” Clark said.
Beta puts a smile on bank president’s face
Lewis made it clear she was pleased with how the bank’s money was put to work.
“You’re talking with a company that’s all about the greening of aviation,” she said. “You go inside and meet the men and women who are transforming aviation. How can you not be excited? How can you not come out here with a smile on our face? Vermont is the place that is going to be one of the key drivers of the future of aviation, done here at Beta.”
Clark said the current manufacturing facility will employ about 800 people when it’s fully up and running and will produce 300 electric aircraft per year. Over the next 18 months, he said Beta will probably break ground on the second half of the facility, doubling its size and potentially making it the largest producer of small general aviation aircraft in the country.
“If we can say that the largest producer of aircraft is now producing a sustainable green electric aircraft, then I will say that will be our first win,” Clark said.
Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: U.S. Export-Import Bank president visited Beta Technologies in VT
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