Beta Technologies (BETA) 2026财年第三季度业绩电话会议：营收创新高，上调业绩指引

核心要点

• 2026财年第三季度营收创下公司历史新高，达1770万美元，同比增长约98%，且高于Beta Technologies给出的800万至1200万美元的业绩指引区间。
• 年初至今营收为4250万美元。管理层将2026财年全年营收指引上调至5200万至5700万美元，此前为4200万至5000万美元。
• 调整后EBITDA为负9740万美元，优于公司指引区间的负1.15亿至1.25亿美元，反映出营收增长、低于预期的运营支出以及符合条件的飞机零部件资本化。
• Beta本季度末拥有约13亿美元的现金及现金等价物。拟议的8.3亿美元美国进出口银行（XM Bank）融资方案仍处于审查中，尚未完成结案。
• 商用飞机储备订单金额超过40亿美元，涵盖具备财务承诺的确认订单及意向订单共计超过1000架飞机。零部件业务另外拥有10亿美元的积压订单。
• Beta提前完成了五个年终运营目标中的三个：飞行里程超过25万海里；建成168个充电站点（目标为150个）；以及飞机储备订单金额超过40亿美元。

关键财务数据

营收增长得益于零部件交付量增加、合作伙伴项目、由电动飞机基础设施试点项目（EIPP）拉动的提前确认的基础设施收入，以及为使用Beta电机、电池和飞行控制计算机的第三方飞机提供整合与试飞支持。

业务与运营表现

Beta的ALIA A250获得了美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的市场调研授权，管理层称其为首款获得该批准的电动垂直起降（eVTOL）飞机。四天后，该飞机在不到20分钟内完成了一次34海里的垂直起降市场调研飞行。

公司已启动获批的七个EIPP项目中的六个。第一阶段重点关注航线验证、可衡量的成本节省、飞行员培训、安全运营和飞机出勤可靠性。管理层表示，第二阶段旨在推动取得135部（Part 135）营运许可并开展商业创收飞行。

Beta最初的垂直起降应用预计将从机场到机场的演示，扩展到涉及器官、组织和血液制品的医院运输任务。该公司也已开始在医院安装充电桩。

零部件业务持续扩大，有五个飞机项目采用了Beta的电池、飞行控制系统、电机和螺旋桨的某种组合。管理层表示，这些项目以高毛利率贡献当前收入，并可能创造更长期的服务、支持和后市场收入。第三季度毛利率较2025财年第三季度提升约300个基点。

在制造方面，Beta在飞行控制计算机、电池包、线束和逆变器等多个零部件生产线上展示出了相当于每月4.5架飞机的产能。机身生产速率测试仍在进行中，而符合适航认证要求的飞机是当前的首要任务。

在国防领域，Beta正在组装其第二架混合动力垂直起降飞机，第三架演示飞机的零部件也在筹备中。管理层预计MV-250的量产提升将略早于商用eVTOL项目，最初将通过一项快速原型制造合同推进。该飞机结合了Beta现有的平台、西科斯基（Sikorsky）Matrix自主飞行技术以及通用电气（GE）Beta涡轮发电机。

飞行运营还带来了令人鼓舞的电池数据。管理层指出，观测到的电池衰减低于最初预测，这有可能降低客户的日常运营成本。

管理层业绩指引

Beta将2026财年全年营收指引上调至5200万至5700万美元，此前区间为4200万至5000万美元。新区间意味着第四季度营收约为900万至1400万美元。管理层表示，虽然有信心达到较高水平，但其正式展望是建立在有高度把握交付的收入基础上的。

全年调整后EBITDA指引保持不变，仍为负4亿至负4.45亿美元。资本支出（CapEx）指引也维持不变。

随着Beta对包括MV-250和扩大的EIPP活动在内的项目进行投资，管理层预计2027财年的研发支出将同比增加。正式的2027财年财务指引和运营关键绩效指标（KPI）预计将随第四季度财报一同公布。

风险与关注事项

• 由于Beta必须在客户生产与内部认证及制造优先级之间取得平衡，不同季度的收入确认可能会有所波动。
• 额外的8.3亿美元美国进出口银行融资方案正在审核委员会推进中，但尚未最终完成。
• 适航认证的时间节点仍存在不确定性。首席执行官凯尔·克拉克（Kyle Clark）表示，他相信Beta将成为VTOL行业中首家获得认证的公司，但也承认无法确定这一结果。
• 公司目前仍处于亏损状态，年初至今调整后EBITDA为负3.05亿美元。
• 那笔10亿美元的零部件积压订单主要集中在单一客户身上。
• Beta尚未完成公司层面的每月4.5架飞机的生产速率目标；计划在2027年初前开展更多机身生产速率测试。

分析师问答环节亮点

认证策略：管理层将其信心归因于更简单的飞机构型，避开了变速箱、液冷、推力矢量和其他复杂系统。CX-300和A250共用电机、电池、飞行控制系统、机翼和尾翼，旨在使一个平台上的认证工作能够支持另一个平台。

EIPP变现：管理层认为充电基础设施是近期最大的收入增长点。佛罗里达州已订购34台充电桩，其他参与州也在筹备电动航空基础设施。随着运营推向135部许可阶段，飞机租赁、出租、飞行员培训和维修保养可能成为额外的收入来源。

国防业务差异化：Beta强调MV-250并非全新研制的设计。它利用公司现有的商用平台，并添加了混合动力与自主飞行功能，用于争夺激烈的后勤及其他军事任务。这种做法旨在保持制造和供应链的通用性。

客户运营重点：EIPP的数据收集围绕出勤可靠性、飞机可用性、全天候能力、培训和充电系统可靠性展开。每架飞机均通过双向星链（Starlink）连接，在飞行前、飞行中和飞行后报告系统状态。

运营经济性：管理层表示，实际飞行数据表明电池衰减低于最初预测。由于电池衰减是一项显著的经常性成本，公司认为这可能会改善客户在飞机整个运营生命周期内的经济效益。

财报电话会议完整文本

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完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Beta Technologies Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the call over to Devon Rothman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Devon Rothman

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Beta Technologies' Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call.

Joining me today are Kyle Clark, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Herman Cueto, our Chief Financial Officer.

Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A, where Kristen Costello, our Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, will also join us.

Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our third quarter 2026 financial results as well as an investor presentation, which are both available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities laws.

These statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a discussion of these risks. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings materials.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Kyle.

Kyle Clark

Thanks, Devon, and good morning, everyone. On our last call, we covered the MV-250 debut at Farnborough, EIPP launch with United Therapeutics carrying organs, motor certification policy interpretation issues, and an aircraft backlog approaching the year-end goal of $4 billion.

This morning, we will cover the commercial, military, and certification momentum and financials for this last quarter. Quarter 3 was the strongest revenue quarter in beta history.

We beat the midpoint of our Q3 guidance by more than 50%. We also crossed more than 0.25 million nautical miles of electric flight. We launched service in 6 EIPP sites, including Florida this past week.

Our exceptionally strong partnership and collaboration with GE continues to make us a better company. And in September, we beat delivery promises to Embraer Eve's program.

We also hosted Chairman Jovanovic from XM Bank and continue to advance the $830 million financing package to fund our domestic manufacturing and vertical integration expansion.

More recently, on October 16, we earned the FAA Market Survey Airworthiness Certificate for the ALEA A250 November 250 X-ray tango, marking the first electric eVTOL aircraft in history to receive one.

4 days after receiving this authorization, we flew the first vertical-to-vertical market survey flight. New York to Vermont across Lake Champlain, it was a 34-nautical-mile flight in less than 20 minutes. That's a drive that typically takes 1.5 hours and includes a ferry.

A few years ago, Beta was the very first to fly piloted eVTOL transition flights on full-scale aircraft. We were the first to produce a training-compliant eVTOL and qualify many pilots to fly.

And now we are the first to earn an FAA authorization to give prospective customers the experience of an eVTOL aircraft through vertical takeoff, transition to wing-borne flight, and vertical landing.

Getting here has required years of work. Each step builds on the foundation for the next. Our maniacal focus on simplicity has driven this progress, and it remains central to how we certify, manufacture, and commercialize our aircraft.

As the eVTOL industry advances towards certification and commercialization, FAA authorizations provide concrete and objective measures of progress. This authorization had several prerequisites.

We had to show stable flight in every corner of the flight envelope, covering all flight load cases and speeds. We had to show stability in all wind conditions, both vertical and runway landings, and we had to produce maintenance manuals and implement the maintenance program.

Most importantly, we had to have a stable aircraft configuration across a meaningful number of flight hours. A focus on the customer has led us to a deliberate choice to remove complexity.

No liquids, no gearboxes, no complex software algorithms, no extra blades, no thrust vectoring, no propeller actuators. Simpler systems have fewer failure modes.

Fewer failure modes mean the aircraft is available when the operator needs it, and it is generating revenue. Beta now holds an FAA market survey authorization for both our CTOL and our VTOL aircraft.

Both are built on a simple common platform, sharing the same wing, tail, flight control systems, motors, and batteries. They are manufactured on the same production lines.

That commonality allows progress in each certification program to support the other. Shifting to our defense business. In September, the CX-300 flew at the Miramar Air Show by Invitation.

We were the first electric aircraft to fly at that military air show. The hybrid and autonomous MV-250 was on static display, and our prospective customers really dug into the details of the aircraft.

The response we are hearing from the defense community is direct and consistent. There is an existing capability gap we can fill with longer range, faster speeds, a very small logistics tail, and autonomy, and we can do it at a significantly lower upfront and recurring operational cost.

The MV-250 builds on our commercial A250 platform, sharing its wing, tail, electric motors, flight controls, and other core systems, achieving near-total technical commonality.

By adding the Sikorsky Matrix autonomy and the GE Beta turbo generator for hybrid operation and a fuselage designed for uncrewed military missions, we deliver enhanced military performance without the time and cost of a clean sheet design.

This foundational dual-use architecture allows the MV-250 to immediately inherit the manufacturing economies of scale and existing supply chain and the flight time from our commercial programs.

We have had very strong engagement at all levels of the armed services, and we've seen commercial demand for hybrid and autonomous systems as well.

We are currently assembling our second hybrid VTOL aircraft, with the components for a third demonstration aircraft coming together. We will have more to share soon.

Transitioning over to our EIP projects that went live since our last call. We have now launched 6 of the 7 programs that we were awarded. We brought the aircraft to the customer operations to fly their routes, their schedules, and their conditions.

We showed them what dispatch reliability looks like when there's no fuel system, no hydraulics to troubleshoot, and no oil change. We flew in good weather and in bad weather.

We showed them a very low cost per flight hour. We showed up early, quietly tested the routes, and delivered in every case. With these selections live, cargo moving and medical transport happening, operators are building the institutional knowledge that will turn a pilot program into long-term commercial relationships.

Phase 1 of the EIPP is about 3 things: one, proving mission closure; two, demonstrating measurable cost savings; and three, building a record of safe and reliable operations.

We are generating the data that will inform the policy for this entire category. Our components business continues to grow faster than we forecasted and has its own $1 billion backlog.

We put our motors, batteries, flight control computers, and other systems into other companies' aircraft, potentially creating long-term service and parts relationships.

We are presented with many more opportunities that we take. We run each of these opportunities through a rigorous evaluation to ensure it's aligned with Beta's overall development and commercial strategies.

We have also recently invested in large-format composite manufacturing capabilities. We are building FAA-conforming composite and metallic structures for our flight test aircraft. We have brought precision, traceability, and quality controls together on the factory floor.

We have consistently made the strategic choice to spend capital on vertical integration. It isn't only in composites. It's also in the motors, the batteries, and the flight control computers.

This vertical integration has allowed us to move extremely quickly and keep our bill of materials costs in check. Our loan application with XM Bank for an additional $830 million financing package continues to advance to support our vertical integration and production.

We expect to be the first company in advanced air mobility to reach a maturity level that allows access to this scale of non-dilutive debt capital.

On to KPIs. At the beginning of this year, we set 5 aggressive year-end targets: book $4 billion in aircraft backlog, cross 0.25 million nautical miles of flight, secure 150 charging sites, prove a 4.5 aircraft per month production rate, and achieve advanced certification.

Today, 2 months early, 3 of the 5 are complete. Our commercial aircraft backlog stands at just over $4 billion with over 1,000 aircraft in firm and option orders backed by financial commitments.

Our recent sales focus has been on securing high-quality medical and cargo sales customers to support a successful entry into service. Airline customers continue to struggle with high fuel prices and are watching the EIPP missions closely, specifically for the realized cost savings.

Our sales organization has successfully established a service and support organization, and they've developed a comprehensive forecasting and aircraft data awareness application called Beta Operate. This will be the backbone of the customer support channel into beta in the future.

As of this call, we have crossed 0.25 million nautical miles flown. When we set that target, we thought it was achievable but hard. The all-weather IFR capability, high reliability, and high dispatch rates are the drivers behind us reaching this goal more than 2 months in advance.

The aircraft have been flying in the snow and the sleet here in the Northeast. They've been to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, across the country many times, into Florida humidity, into the desert, into the Arctic and the Nordics, 14 countries in total.

The exposure to a variety of environmental and operating conditions has made our aircraft better. We're at 168 charging sites, ahead of our year-end target of 150. These aren't urban showcased installations.

They are in the communities our EIPP operators serve, hospitals, regional airports, emergency response staging areas. That infrastructure is where the missions are.

In manufacturing, we continue to make meaningful progress towards our target of demonstrating production capacity equivalent to 4.5 aircraft per month.

Our focus at this stage is on establishing and validating the manufacturing capability we will need when we ramp production on certified aircraft rather than staffing for sustained production at this rate today.

We've already demonstrated capacity of 4.5 aircraft per month across several key vertically integrated component lines, including flight control computers, battery packs, wire harnesses, and inverters.

We're now extending that work across our major airframe structures through targeted pulse builds. Our highest manufacturing priority remains in the production of fully conforming flight test aircraft in support of certification, which requires additional FAA oversight, inspection, and part traceability.

We're making deliberate investments in capacity while prioritizing those critical certification builds, with the underlying manufacturing infrastructure targeted to be in place by year-end and additional rate demonstrations continuing into early 2027.

This approach positions us to scale production efficiently as we acutely manage our direct labor and material costs, and it positions us to add direct labor at the right time.

Turning to our H500A certification program. We continue to complete and submit 4-credit testing documents and data to the FAA. Durability and lightning testing are complete.

Software development is substantially complete, with all runs performed on 4-credit tests of the software. We are through the hardest phases of the engine program and carrying what we learned directly into our other programs.

We have aligned with the FAA on how to demonstrate compliance across every test area. Reaching this level of progress put us in the right position to move forward formally with our next engine certification project.

We submitted the H500B amended type certification application earlier last month. Through early engagement with the FAA, we have confirmed conceptual alignment that the B is a derivative product and will be an amended type certificate.

The B will follow the path the A has paid while introducing improvements in cost, performance, weight, and producibility. I want to also provide an update on our CX300 program.

The certification plans we need to start early system testing have all been accepted by the FAA, and testing is underway. We continue to host FAA pilots for the flight familiarization activities that help us move towards type inspection authorization, or TIA.

The aircraft we are building today will have operational use cases well beyond certification tests. In a moment, Herman will walk through the implications of how we account for this, which also reflects the maturity of our programs as we transition towards commercial operations.

On the A250, beyond the market survey certificate, 2 regulatory developments moved in our direction. The noise testing we conducted jointly with Penn State and the FAA came back strong.

The FAA is using that data to find the noise requirements for this aircraft class and inform the rules. And the FAA published its safety continuum policy towards power lift aircraft.

The safety levels it establishes confirm the cross-platform compliance approach we designed into the CX-300 and A250 from the start. The team here at Beta has kept their heads down, focused on the quiet work of certification, production quality, and safety of flight data.

We've earned the respect and trust of the best in aerospace, and our partnerships with GE Aerospace, Embraer Eve, General Dynamics APS, and others are strong and growing.

The current administration has been very supportive of the AAM industry. The leaders in the FAA continue to reduce unnecessary friction while prioritizing simple, reliable, and safe aircraft.

At the start of this year, we told you what we were setting out to do: 0.25 million nautical miles, 150 charging sites, and $4 billion of the backlog. Today, I can say confidently, we did those things with time to spare.

Our focus is being rewarded, and our strategy is working. Herman, over to you.

Herman Cueto

Thank you, Kyle, and good morning, everyone. At the start of this year, we laid out a series of milestones and investments designed to advance certification, demonstrate commercial readiness, and build the manufacturing capabilities that will underpin our long-term unit economics.

The progress Kyle outlined brings that strategy to life. The ALEA A250 becoming the first electric VTOL to hold FAA market survey authorization, 6 EIPP selections now live, continued investment in vertical integration and industrialization enabled by advancing XM Bank financing and surpassing 3 of our 5 year-end KPI targets, backlog, nautical miles and charging sites, all ahead of schedule.

Further, on October 20, we performed the inaugural VTOL market survey flight, Plattsburg to Burlington, 34 nautical miles, 20 minutes.

The cumulative impact of these achievements highlights how we are translating capital into measurable progress, reducing risk across the business and strengthening the foundation for commercial scale.

On October 21, I had the privilege of meeting with senior leadership at the Pentagon to discuss the MB-250, our development progress, our industrialization timeline, and how this aircraft fills a gap in the existing fleet.

The conversations were encouraging, and we expect to have more to say on this program in the coming quarters.

With that backdrop, let me turn to our third quarter financial results. Third quarter revenue was $17.7 million, the highest quarterly revenue in Beta's history and meaningfully above our guidance of $8 million to $12 million.

Revenue grew approximately 98% year-over-year, and we delivered our second consecutive quarter of sequential growth, all organic, with no inorganic revenue from acquisitions.

This performance was driven by an increase in component deliveries, continued progress across partnership programs, infrastructure revenue pulled forward by the EIPP, and integration and flight test support for third-party aircraft using our motors, batteries, and flight control computers.

While the timing of when these activities can be recognized as revenue can vary from quarter to quarter, the underlying relationships and programs are durable.

Year-to-date revenue reached $42.5 million, already exceeding the low end of our full-year guidance range of $42 million to $50 million with a full quarter remaining.

Operating expenses in the quarter were $140.5 million, including R&D expenses of $90.5 million and G&A expenses of $50 million.

Adjusted EBITDA was negative $97.4 million, better than our guidance range of negative $115 million to negative $125 million. Three factors drove the outperformance: higher revenue, operating expenses below our quarterly forecast, and the commencement of capitalization of qualifying aircraft components.

The initial aircraft components will be utilized for internal business operations and certification, with subsequent manufactured units deployed to expand EIPP operations and future campaigns.

This reflects the progress and maturity of the CX300 program. As CX300 production advances, we expect to capitalize qualifying aircraft components on the balance sheet, an important transition as we build towards certified aircraft production and commercial sale.

Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA stands at negative $305 million against the full-year guidance range of negative $400 million to negative $445 million.

We ended the quarter with approximately $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Since the quarter ended, XM Bank has continued to make progress in closing the incremental $830 million in financing to support our domestic manufacturing expansion.

We've started clearing the bank's review committees. This is long-duration, low-cost, non-dilutive capital that comes directly from the treasury's balance sheet and is pointed at strategic gaps in American manufacturing.

This is capital designed for what we are building, and work is already underway. The continued support by the XM Bank is a validation of our strategy.

The world's largest export credit agency reviewed what we are building in Burlington, Vermont, and is working to put $830 million behind it. We expect to be the first company in advanced air mobility to close a commitment of this scale.

As that financing advances, we believe Beta has the strongest balance sheet in our sector.

Turning now to our outlook for 2026. We are raising our full-year 2026 revenue guidance. We now expect revenue to be in a range of $52 million to $57 million.

Our full-year adjusted EBITDA and CapEx guidance remains unchanged. We look forward to providing 2027 guidance on our fourth quarter call in the new year.

With that, let me turn it back to the operator to open the call for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question is from the line of Anthony Valentini with Barclays.

分析师问答

Anthony Valentini

I'm curious if, given the announcements in the quarter and the progress that you've made on some of the key steps here in certification, if you guys feel like you're the furthest along in getting your VTOL certified relative to competitors in the industry?

Kyle Clark

Anthony, Kyle here. It's an interesting question; we're the furthest along. And I do firmly believe we will be the first to certify in the VTOL industry. And it's not necessarily because we're the furthest along; it's because we have less total to do.

We've made a bunch of choices to not have to certify obscure new and novel technologies like what they call simplified vehicle operations, which is a convoluted algorithm on flight controllers laid over the fundamental first-principle physics flight control system, thrust vectoring, liquid cooling, all the gearboxes, all the things that go into certification that have to be extremely reliable, well tested, and then produce statistically relevant data for certification.

And taking those off the airplane gives us just a clearer path to certification. So, just adjusting your question from further along, people are working hard across the industry.

I think some of the choices we made a long time ago have given us a clear path to certification. And with the recent publication of the safety continuum for powered lift, it gives us this kind of step-wise approach that mirrors our entry into service strategy.

Anthony Valentini

Maybe on the defense side, it seems like there's a great opportunity here for the VTOL industry to maybe like pull forward some revenue given that the Defense Department is looking for autonomous and attritable systems.

But it also seems like there are a lot of different offerings from different companies between Android and Archer. I think Boeing and even Lockheed had their own products.

Can you guys maybe just provide a little bit of detail of like where you think that you're differentiated from a product standpoint? And then are you guys going after contested logistics or missionized programs?

And are there programs of record that we should be expecting to come out? Maybe just like some high-level explanation on what you guys are seeing there to the extent that you're able to talk about it.

Kyle Clark

Yes. Thanks for that question. I think the very first entry point is extremely important. Beta didn't elect to do a clean-sheet aircraft.

We took an aircraft that we already had, and we're adding hybridization and autonomy. So it's the same wing, tail, flight controls, batteries, all the same structure. It's a nice transition. That's what's enabled us to build multiple examples of this aircraft very, very quickly.

And recall, we're already getting paid by DevCom within the Army to do hybridization and autonomy, the 2 gaps between our existing product and what they're asking.

The second part of your question about contested logistics. Contested logistics is definitely the prime target. But this is a multi-mission aircraft. We've been evaluating SAR-launched effects, some type of CASEVAC. There's a lot of good momentum.

As Herman said in his remarks, he spent time down in the Pentagon. I certainly have been talking through the capability gap of the military.

And then we've just been demonstrating out with -- we were out on the Russian border in Aurora 2026 with the U.S. Army doing a ton of demonstrations alongside Black Hawks, evaluating the cost of moving material. It's a great fit.

That was, by the way, with the CTOL electric aircraft for the sake of clarity. It was a great fit for our aircraft. And then just looking forward, I think it's really important to note that all this design commonality then gets recaptured again when we talk about manufacturing synergies and commonality down the road.

So yes, we're aware there are a lot of people out there offering Tesla Logistics VTOL aircraft. We chose to take a very simple and pragmatic approach to it. And I do believe that whether you're a UPS or a health care provider like United Therapeutics or the U.S. military, you want the same thing.

You want a simple, reliable, high dispatch rate aircraft that has high survivability, that is low cost to operate. That does not demand an entirely new aircraft design.

You pick up stuff, you move it to a new place, you put it down. There are minor mission changes that demand autonomy and hybridization, but it's largely the same aircraft. So that's our strategy.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies.

Unknown Analyst

This is Kira on for Sheila. Great to see the progress on the EIPP with the FAA this quarter. With that, you mentioned generating the data that will inform the policy for the entire category.

What have you learned about the beta aircraft in these early EIPP operations? And what are the key data metrics you're focused on?

Kyle Clark

Yes. Thanks, Sheila. Key data metrics: dispatch reliability, availability of the aircraft. And then, of course, like the nuances of that.

As I mentioned in my remarks, we've developed a pretty sophisticated program called Data Operate that extracts the data from the self-aware aircraft and evaluates the health of every system within the aircraft before, after, and actually during every flight.

Every aircraft is actually outfitted with a Starlink bidirectional downlink that allows that aircraft to report its status at all times. The amount of data that we're getting is actually awesome. That's like on the technological side.

On the operational side, I mean, I'll give you an example. We went down to North Carolina. EIPP day was low overcast clouds, mostly IFR. It was VFR in the vicinity of the airport.

I was able to fly with the Governor and the Head of the Department of Transportation in North Carolina, really reminding us that an all-weather capability of the aircraft was critical if we're going to propose this aircraft as a cargo medical logistics aircraft.

I mean, I don't know this, but I would go as far as to speculate that there's no way that UPS would ever fly VFR-only aircraft. So flying all-weather has been a big kind of operational thing.

And then, of course, as we've cycled our customer pilots through our training system, we've continuously improved and refined the training system. I'd say those are the 3 biggest things.

There are some nuanced ones around insurance, financing, and engagement with the customer, all the edge elements of supporting a successful launch into the market on the airplane.

And lastly, I'd say we've designed a charge system that has 8 modules in it, 8x redundancy. We knew that chargers on the ground couldn't fail for airplanes because you can't go to the next McDonald down the street. You got to charge, and you got to fly.

And so our charge system reliability has been another important learning point, which has also been very, very successful for us. And I think we made the right design choices early to add reliability to that.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Andrew Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Andres Sheppard-Slinger

Congratulations on the quarter. And congrats on the market survey, certainly a big differentiator there.

Kyle, I guess I wanted to come back to the EIPP. Now that we have the market survey for the eVTOL, wondering if you can maybe update us on how you plan to use both now the CTOL and the eVTOL for the different EIPP projects?

And for the VTOL specifically, what kind of applications are you targeting?

Kyle Clark

Thanks for the question. The team here has architected an EIPP proposal that has a stepwise approach to service. It starts with the CTOL and then moves into the TOL in phases.

The first VTOL missions -- and by the way, we inserted autonomy in there as well. So we have autonomous all-electric CTOL flights between the CTOL and the TOL EIPP.

The first demos will be airport to airport, of course. And then the likely next one will be to hospitals. This is part of United Therapeutics early philosophy on the eVTOL aircraft that they sponsored the development of.

Out of respect to them, because we think it's a great entry market, that's really where we're going to start VTOL flights. And I guess we didn't put this in our remarks. As part of that charging network, we put our first chargers into hospitals recently as well.

So that was a big milestone for the company, positioning ourselves to answer the call with EIPP flights moving organs, tissues, and blood products.

Andres Sheppard-Slinger

And maybe just as a quick follow-up, I wanted to come back to the defense side.

So on the MV-250, can you maybe remind us again how we should think about those initial deliveries? What kind of opportunities specifically are you looking at? And what kind of ramp-up should we expect for the MV-250, maybe ahead of the eVTOL?

Kyle Clark

Yes. I think you're accurate in saying that the ramp-up of the MV-250 will be slightly ahead of the eVTOL.

The Department of Defense has been very, very clear about this capability gap, and a lot of momentum has been generated recently. We are past the individual system test. As I said, we've been paid by DevCom to develop and show them hybridization and autonomy.

There's been a lot of flying on our electric aircraft. We put those different pieces together on our CTOL aircraft, and now we're putting them together on MV-250.

This particular product will land in a rapid prototyping contract that will get deployed out into the world, and we'll do the same thing we've done on the CTOL this year on the MV-250 in the coming months and years.

And it's all built, as you know, on this partnership with GE around the turbogenerator, providing this extended range, extended speed, and higher payload of the aircraft, which puts it kind of out of the league of existing resources the Army specifically has.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of John Godin with Citigroup.

Unknown Analyst

This is Max on for John. You referenced the demonstration goals in Phase 1 of the EIPP program earlier, including improving mission closure, demonstrating cost savings, and building a record of safe operations.

Can you speak a bit about some of the next phases in this program and what you hope to demonstrate in each of these programs that you have been awarded?

Curious about what this looks like over the medium term?

Kyle Clark

Yes. So these first operations are done under Part 91 with very close collaboration between the customers engaged, the states, the FAA, the firm transportation, of course, Beta.

Phase 2 of the operations, and if you have a follow-up on the details of it, I'll hand it off to Kristen here, but Phase 2 of the operations really leans into 135 operations and 4 revenue-generating flights. Naturally, doing 10, 20, 30, 50 flights under Part 91 is no problem.

We wouldn't leave an asset there just to fly without some type of long-term customer benefit and revenue from it. So the next step will be revenue-generating flights under 135.

Kristen Costello

Yes. And John, I think, to Kyle's point, what we did in Phase 1 with the route validation, the pilot training, carrying the representative payloads in the areas, and really demonstrating the full capability of the aircraft.

Now stepping into Phase 2, we're working with the FAA and the operators as these questions are being answered for us in real time. We're getting the pathways for those operational approvals, working with the FAA and the DOT, who have been rigorously working towards this for us.

And those answers are still in the works, but we're anticipating having that pathway in the coming weeks.

Unknown Analyst

And then switching gears a bit. You mentioned the components business having a $1 billion backlog itself and driving a bunch of the revenue beat this quarter.

I recall last quarter, we spoke about this opportunity driving attractive margins across your value chain. I was just curious if you could provide an update there and discuss how this business is progressing in terms of volume and margins?

And any further insight you guys can provide there would be helpful.

Kyle Clark

Yes. It's interesting. If I think back about 5 years, we had listened closely to this group of analysts, frankly, about how the components business was something that we should pursue for a number of reasons, including the margins associated with components in this space.

We have since obviously leaned in and have partners like GE and the Embraer program, General Dynamics, a bunch of other programs. There are actually 5 aircraft programs using our batteries, flight controls, motors, props, some combination thereof out there right now.

And the revenue numbers are obviously important. And it was great for Herman and his team to post a significant beat, but the makeup of those revenue numbers is significantly more important.

There are seeds that we've planted. And as everybody knows, getting a motor or a battery or flight controller embedded into an aircraft that ultimately is type designed or type certified, excuse me, is sticky.

It's like extremely sticky, and that's how we select the programs that we're engaged in. And not only does it contribute meaningfully to our revenue right now, but it also contributes at a high margin, and it gives us a path towards future revenue.

That $1 billion is largely made up by one customer, and that's a seed that we planted when we gave them our first set of pusher and lifter motors. And I think it will return in their initial kind of production and then, of course, in the service support and aftermarket.

Herman Cueto

Max, maybe I could just add a little bit of context as well. So stepping back, when you look at Beta, Beta has multiple ways to win, whether it's through components, charging, or partnership programs. And I think you saw it this quarter.

When you look at the product revenue and the service revenue, we have product revenue growing 78%. A lot of that is enabled by charge, for example.

Service revenue grew 108%, and all of that is enabled by partnership programs. And keep in mind, these partnership programs are a lot of times about taking beta's technology and integrating it into their systems. And as Kyle described, it just makes it very, very sticky.

And to your question on margins, the margin acceleration that we saw, if you were to look at Q3 '25 versus Q3 '26, we saw about 300 basis points of gross margin acceleration.

So volume through the shop floor, things like that, all starting to stack up as we move towards industrialization.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley.

Kristine Liwag

Congrats again on the FAA survey approval for the VTOL. So Kyle, earlier, you mentioned that you now expect to be the first eVTOL to be certified with the FAA.

I think this is the most definitive, most confident statement you've had regarding timing. And so I was wondering what you learned in the past few months, and maybe for the survey period, that gives you the confidence that you would be the first, especially as you were previously focused on the fixed-wing before and the C-TOL.

It sounds like there's a change here in your view on certification.

Kyle Clark

Well, Kristine, if I told you we weren't the first, it would be a little bit ironic, considering we've made the decisions we've made because we truly do believe in it.

And the reason I have confidence is I observe the quiet work that happens every day here at Beta by the people that are focused on certification, industrialization, our quality systems, and the other things that aren't as flashy.

Those people and those teams are extremely dedicated to doing it right because there's a saying in aviation: there's always time to do it right because there's rarely time to do it again.

That's the track we're taking across decisions on the engineering, the implementation and production, the conforming article builds. So I don't see what's going on at the other folks in this industry.

I'm sure there are a lot of really hard-working people, but we do see the high-level strategic choices that are made. I think that we have established and continue to establish a differentiation.

As I said in the prepared remarks, it often is lost on people that everything that we did on the propeller to get that certified, everything we did on the motor to get that to the state that's in near certification on the CTOL, all leads into a VTOL that largely contains systems that have already been approved by the FAA for VTOL or CTOL aircraft and then roll into the VTOL.

So it's part of our strategy. I believe it's working. I can't obviously say with any type of certainty, but I was asked my opinion on it, and I'm going to give you an honest answer.

Kristine Liwag

Now regarding the revenue outlook, you raised that for the full year, but that seems to be reflected mostly in the stronger 3Q.

Were there any one-time items? Or will you quantify some sort of pull-forward? And could you see similar acceleration in your 4Q results that you saw in 3Q?

Herman Cueto

Kristine, it's Herman. That's a great question. As you know, revenue exceeded the high end of guidance by more than 50%. And as we always do, our Q4 outlook reflects revenue that we have really high confidence in delivering.

Keep in mind, as Beta evolves, our shop floor right now goes through a lot of balancing. So there is work that we do for customers. There's work that we do for our own certification production priorities.

So that mix between the 2 things can impact quarterly revenue timing. We do have line of sight to be on the higher end of the range, but we wanted to give you the $52 million to $57 million. It implies somewhere between $9 million and $14 million in the quarter.

But if you step back and you look at it, on a full-year basis, at the midpoint of the current guide, we're growing more than 50%, and we feel that's a better way to look at it.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham.

Christopher Pierce

Following up on Andre's question. I guess I'd just love to hear what you're hearing from customers as you've done these demonstrations for them?

What should our expectation be for what's next, not just autonomous and VTOL, but what should we see on the customer side? Would it be like deposit-back orders? Would it be just in the order book?

Like what should our expectation be based on enthusiasm from customers as you fly for them?

Kyle Clark

Yes. I mean, I'll just give you a fun, visceral answer. Flying a fly-by-wire aircraft with a really stable configuration.

When I fly with the chief pilots or our team flies with their teams, the feedback is exceptional. I mean, the visibility, the modern avionics, it's a safe airplane. It's got all the technologies that prevent the mistakes that have put people in danger in the past. So that's like number one.

The data-rich aircraft, as I talked about before, I won't retrace those steps, but that's a huge benefit to customers. Awareness is the ability for them to make good decisions.

The cost is a big one. But to answer your question more acutely on what we expect out of the market survey ticket and the VTOL, it's a third-party validation that this aircraft has a stable configuration, and that's important to our customers.

And part of getting a market survey is also having maintenance manuals and a maintenance process. And those are the types of questions you get from the more sophisticated customers.

They're asking, lastly, how much does the aircraft cost? They asked how much it costs to operate. Why? What are the things I have to do: frequency, downtime, dispatch rate.

And then, like the tenth question down the list, is how much does it cost? So being able to answer those questions, not just with a speculative forecast, but with real data has been really, really helpful.

And we've accumulated enough hours and miles to really bring that out. The other thing that has surprised me personally is that we've seen some really neat customers step up, customers that are doing things that you didn't even really know were a big market.

I mean, we were flying radioisotopes, for example, car parts to factories that didn't want to be down. It's very expensive to have a car line down. These cargo and logistics things, we talk about them abstractly, but buried within that, our economy moves on the things that get to the factories to build the stuff.

And we want to be a part of that. And it's a huge and growing market that we think that is the right entry point. So learning about those obscure applications has been --, and I can't talk about it yet, but we saw the press release soon.

One of the orders that tipped us over the $4 billion backlog balance was from a company moving one of these obscure cargo elements.

Christopher Pierce

Then just one for Herman. I know that if we kind of roll back maybe 6 months ago, you had guided us towards 2Q R&D and where things landed now that we've seen things step down in 3Q.

But as we think about Phase 2 or additional phases of the EIPP, I know you're not guiding '27, but should we think about there being a step-up in R&D in '27 as well as we think about all the flying you guys are doing and the more flying that you're going to do now that VTOL is ready to get out there?

Herman Cueto

Yes. You said it perfectly. We're not going to guide 2027 right now. But what I would say, Chris, is there have been so many opportunities that have presented themselves this year.

When you look at the work we're doing on the NV250, we talked about pulling in that investment this year. EIPP has been wildly successful, and it's unlocking a big revenue opportunity with things like charge.

So I would expect that on the R&D side, you will see a step-up year-over-year. And maybe it's with EIPP, but there are other exciting investments that we want to put dollars behind. And we'll talk more about that in the new year when we guide 2027.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Noah Poponak with Goldman Sachs.

Tomas Russo

This is Tomas on for Noah Poponak. I wanted to ask about the large passenger aircraft. How are you thinking about allocating capacity between that program and wheel?

And given the higher battery content for the airframe, what's the right framework we should think about for size and how much this program expands the total aftermarket opportunity?

Kyle Clark

Yes. I think, along the themes that I mentioned before, for the large passenger aircraft, as I mentioned in the S-1, it is built from the same common technology and manufacturing capability that we have developed for these aircraft.

It is a consideration. I'll give you an example: in the flight control computers, for a cargo and logistics aircraft, you could reduce the design assurance level of the flight computers.

We elected to make flight computers that were fit for the application in a Part 29 or Part 25 aircraft. And that allows us to reuse that technology.

Same with the composites: the allowables associated with composites, the design guides, the drawing standards, all the things that we do behind the scenes to give ourselves a safe and reliable aircraft at a smaller scale, we can turn the knob just slightly and make that technology immediately applicable to the large aircraft.

We have a relatively small team; we call it an advanced systems team. We set that team up in groups of 6 to 12 people, and they have been working quite hard on the development and setting the table for all of our future programs, including a larger passenger aircraft that I had mentioned in the past.

And the results are extremely promising. I think it's important to note that, when you think about the improvement of a vehicle, like a Tesla automobile, for example, people think that the range improved because the batteries got better.

Just under half of the range improvement came from the batteries. The rest came from lightweighting structure, aerodynamics, propulsive efficiency, and gear train efficiency.

These are things that we work just as hard at as the adoption of new energy storage technologies. So we're seeing longer and longer ranges of the aircraft.

As you know, we've flown our CTOL aircraft 336 nautical miles. We intend to invest in that. And it's a strategy that's looking at the longer form. So it's rooted in knowing what we're going to do in the future and setting the table now to enable us to do that efficiently.

Tomas Russo

And I want to quickly ask: with the uptick in flight operations this quarter, is there any color you can provide on how the operating economics for EA are tracking toward your initial expectations?

Kyle Clark

Yes. I'll tell you, probably this is the first time I've said this publicly, we now have enough data on the batteries to show that the degradation is less than we forecasted. That means a more economical operation.

We have aircraft that are getting into enough cycles that they're past their half-life of what we anticipated in batteries. We have a measurable difference in the degradation of the batteries.

That's really good for us and for the customers to lower the cost of operation because when you really dissect the recurring cost of operation, the battery degradation is a big part of that.

And the lower that cost can be on a per-flight basis, the more often our customers will fly and therefore, the more profitable the aircraft will be for them.

Focusing on the customer has been a philosophy here from day 1. And frankly, we've done millions of cycles on individual cells, modules, and packs in our laboratories, but you have to go fly it to prove it.

The temperature, the environment, the cooling, the cadence, the actual exercise of the batteries that causes that irreversible degradation, which we call what we measure in terms of capacity, is really only realized with a ton of hours of flying.

So it's been, frankly, quite positive. And I think that's the first time we've actually disclosed what the results are showing us. Thanks for the question. I appreciate it.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Andre Madrid with U.S. Bancorp BTIG.

Unknown Analyst

You got Ned Morgan on for Andre. Herman, you alluded to it a moment ago, but as EIPP operations expand, how should we think about the monetization opportunity?

I recognize a lot of the value is operational learning and accelerating adoption, but could it ultimately also be a meaningful source of revenue?

Herman Cueto

Yes, I think so. When we move from Part 91 to 135, I think that creates an opportunity to do different things with the aircraft, whether that's renting it or leasing it. I think that opportunity will present itself.

But the real opportunity that we're seeing, and we're seeing it today, is the states that are participating in the EIPP leaning forward with charging. As we had spoken about in the past, we received an order from Florida for 34 chargers that we've been manufacturing and deploying.

We're seeing other states in the EIPP start to do different things with charge as well to put the infrastructure in place today for electric aviation. I think that's where you're going to see the big revenue drivers.

And then, of course, there's going to be pilot training. There will be maintenance-type things, but the large driver will be charging.

Unknown Analyst

And then a follow-up. As we look into '27, for your 5 main KPIs, are you able to provide any preliminary thoughts on what you expect to how you're set them that?

Kyle Clark

Yes. No, we're not going to provide guidance on our KPIs for next year. We do have internal goals that are closely tracked within the team and the Board, and we'll disclose our next year's guidance, including KPIs, on our fourth-quarter earnings call.

But look, the reality is we'll keep accelerating, and that's the baseline.

Operator

I will now turn the call over to Kyle Clark for closing remarks.

Kyle Clark

Awesome. Thank you, everybody. I just really appreciate people sticking around and getting through this call.

The results this quarter, in my estimation, are just a product of the team here and their commitment and focus by those 1,500 people who, as I said before, are dedicated to the quiet work. I think that they're focused on the right thing and the fundamentals, first-principles physics and improving the way that we fly.

I think this company as a whole is on sound strategic footing and unquestionably a solid technological foundation. And what's really gratifying this quarter, and I've got to tell you, I just feel really good about the energy and the momentum here is that those things are being validated.

They weren't validated on day 1, but they're validated years after those decisions are made, and that work has been done. And I feel like we're on just really solid footing to take the next steps into finishing this year strong and continuing this momentum into next year.

So thank you, everybody, for believing in this team, and we'll continue to keep our heads down and deliver for you.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.