Australia’s Regional Express (Rex) has announced that it has taken a 20 per cent stake in electric aircraft company, Dovetail Electric Aviation. 

This agreement formalises the partnership between Rex and Dovetail and builds on the Memorandum of Understanding between the two, which was unveiled on 21 July 2022.

The Australian-headquartered Dovetail recently received a $3 million grant from the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P). The funding will help facilitate Dovetail’s development of electric propulsion systems used on regional routes by Rex, and other regional airlines.

Rex is Australia’s largest independent regional and domestic airline and operates a fleet of 61 Saab 340s and seven Boeing 737-800NG aircraft.

Dovetail also recently announced the successful completion of initial ground tests involving a small-scale Electric Propulsion System (EPS) to spin a three-blade propeller for the first time.

Image credit: Rex