Electra.aero, which is developing a hybrid plane akin to a flying taxi to serve the next generation of flight, has named longtime Boeing executive Marc Allen as its CEO.
Allen, most recently chief strategy officer at the Arlington aerospace giant, replaces Electra founder John Langford. Langford will remain chairman.
Manassas-based Electra, founded in 2020, is building what it calls clean tech hybrid-electric planes to move people and cargo without airports, emissions or noise. The planes are known as eSTOL, for electric short take-off and landing; Electra says they need only 150 feet to take off and land.
The company says it has more than 2,000 preorders for a nine-seat hybrid aircraft. It plans to reveal the aircraft design Nov. 13. The company, which has 45 employees, has raised $90 million in funding as of July 25, per PitchBook, and is valued at more than $8 billion.
“Ultra Short aircraft will change us all,” Allen wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing his appointment.
Langford said he met Allen in 2017 when Boeing acquired Manassas-based Aurora Flight Sciences, which Langford had founded in 1989.
Allen, a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, had been at Boeing for 17 years, including stints in Brazil, China and Seattle, per his LinkedIn. He was also chairman of Wisk Aero LLC, which is developing an air taxi.
Previously he worked at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He serves on the board of Procter & Gamble. He stepped down at Boeing at the end of 2023.
