When Drew McEwen pilots his Beechcraft Bonanza from his Vero Beach home to his job in Daytona Beach at the new U.S. headquarters and production site of French airplane manufacturer AURA AERO, the lifelong aviator may get a bit nostalgic.

After all, the plane he takes to work – a v-tailed, hot rod-looking, 1969 Bonanza painted bright red with blue checks running down the fuselage – once belonged to his mother.

“I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and my mother and father were aviators,” said McEwen, who earned his glider license at age 14 and his private pilot license at 16. “My mother flew a Beechcraft Bonanza, and I spent a lot of time in the right seat as a child.”

His first solo flight at age 16, in a Grumman American Cheetah, “stands out vividly,” McEwen said. “As I accelerated down the runway alone, the realization that I was completely responsible for the aircraft was both humbling and motivating. My mother, who was also a flight instructor, played a major role in guiding me through those early milestones.”

As AURA AERO’s Chief Commercial Officer, a job he took in early 2024 after more than 35 years with aviation manufacturers Piper Aircraft and Beechcraft, McEwen will be part of an adventure his late parents never dreamed of: The Toulouse, France-based AURA AERO boldly proclaims it is “leading the race” to create “the first hybrid electric commercial aircraft.”

AURA AERO plans to “accelerate the adoption of cleaner, greener aviation technologies,” leading to the “decarbonization” of aviation,” McEwen said. Such steps, he added, will revive the moribund regional airline market in the U.S.

In October 2025, AURA AERO, which was founded in 2018, opened an 11,000-square-foot facility at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park in Daytona Beach. That facility will be doing “completion work” on AURA AERO’s INTEGRAL R, a piston-engine, two-seater, aerobatic-capable training aircraft.

“Some of the equipment we get is in the U.S., such as the avionics and the engine, so it makes sense not to ship those parts over to France but do the completions in Daytona Beach,” McEwen said. Beginning in 2027, the facility also will support flight testing for AURA AERO’s new all-electric INTEGRAL E model.

In 2028, AURA AERO will open a $172.5 million, 500,000-square-foot facility at its Daytona Beach site to begin manufacturing its 19-seat ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft), which it intends to be the world’s first hybrid electric regional aircraft. The company also plans to make the plane at its France facility.

The Daytona facility will create more than 1,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $70,000 and produce up to 100 aircraft per year beginning in 2029.

“Florida has long been a leader in aeronautics and space, and the technical expertise of its workforce is a tremendous asset in asserting our leadership in the electric and hybrid electric aviation sectors,” said Jérémy Caussade, president and co-founder of AURA AERO, in an Embry-Riddle press release. “The State of Florida, Space Florida (the state’s aerospace finance and development authority) and Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University have always believed in us and supported us from the beginning in this project, which is now coming to fruition.”

Daytona-area universities’ contributions to a “very capable workforce” were another factor in AURA AERO’s decision, McEwen said. Also, Embry-Riddle was “very attractive” because “we will partner with them on some of the research and testing on our electric airplane.”

Space Florida provided a $3.4 million investment in the INTEGRAL facility, and for the ERA facility it will provide up to $200 million in financing “tied to various incentives with job creation being the key one,” McEwen said.

Keith Norden, president and CEO of the Team Volusia Economic Development Corporation, said one of his organization’s “strongest target industries is aviation and aerospace. Having a trailblazing French company like AURA AERO choose Volusia County to be their U.S. headquarters and manufacturing and assembly facility signals to the industry that international investment and
innovation are flourishing here, as companies leverage all the great strategic benefits there are in locating to the Greater Daytona Region…In our international and national outreach, we promote the groundbreaking work in hybrid electric regional aircrafts that AURA AERO will do here, elevating our presence in the industry, putting us even more strongly on the map for aviation and aerospace, and manufacturing companies.”

The U.S. is the world’s largest training market, with nearly 600 FAA-approved flight schools, according to Embry-Riddle, and so there is “a growing demand for modern, cost-effective training aircraft with aerobatic capabilities.” Thus, a sizable market awaits AURA AERO’s two-seater INTEGRAL.

Concerning the ERA, McEwen said, “There are a lot of paper airplane companies that really haven’t done anything yet – they talk about it (hybrid electric aircraft) but to actually do it is a next step. We’re the first company doing a hybrid electric regional airliner with 19 seats. The technology is not really there to do much bigger, because of the density and weight of the batteries. But we feel like we’re the first in this race, if you want to call it that.”

Once the ERA gets certifications from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the FAA, the aircraft will revitalize the regional airline industry, McEwen said.

“From the 1980s to about 2000, there were literally thousands of turbo-prop airplanes flying segments of 250 to 350 nautical miles,” he said. “That market is proven.”

Then, McEwen adds, the “big jets” came in, disrupting the smaller markets even though they served fewer communities and offered fewer flights to those they did serve.

The result: A lot of communities’ regional services “went away when the turbo props went away,” he said.

The ERA’s projected range of 250 or 350 nautical miles, and its 19-seat capacity will make it a perfect fit for the regional industry today, McEwen said.

Key to resuscitating the regional market will be a hybrid electric airplane’s “savings of anywhere from 40% to 60% on total operating costs compared to the big turbo-prop engines,” McEwen said. “The regional airline market of passenger service for 19 seats is really nonexistent now, when it used to be huge. I see it as bringing back service to a lot of communities throughout every state that used to have regional services.”

AURA AERO did its first demo flight for its all-electric INTEGRAL E in Toulouse, France, in December, but McEwen, who is a private pilot with a multi-engine rating, has yet to pilot one.

“I’m going back over there in February, so I might fly it then,” he said. “What’s cool about electric is it’s a lot quieter and it’s got really good performance. To accelerate and put more power on the engine is pretty instant versus a piston engine.”

Meanwhile, McEwen will still be piloting his mother’s beloved Beechcraft Bonanza to work from Vero Beach to Daytona.

“It certainly beats driving I-95,” he said.