PARIS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Lockheed-backed Electra.aero

has appointed former Boeing executive Marc Allen as chief

executive as it seeks to deliver on plans to develop

hybrid-electric planes capable of operating from

soccer-field-length runways.

The Virginia-based startup, whose investors include Lockheed

Martin Ventures, is developing a nine-passenger eSTOL or

electrically powered Short Take-Off and Landing aircraft, and

carried out the first flight of a demonstrator called Goldfinch

in November.

Backers include the U.S. Air Force's Agility Prime

programme, designed to promote novel forms of vertical lift for

military purposes.

"The possibilities include movement of personnel and

materiel and also providing power generation in austere

environments," Allen told Reuters.

"You get opportunities to operate purely on a battery so you

can get into communities without the noise associated with

aviation. That has obvious implications on the civil side and on

the defence side."

Allen stepped down as Boeing's ( BA ) chief strategy officer at the

end of 2023 as the U.S. planemaker pared down its strategy arm

under former CEO Dave Calhoun.

He spearheaded Boeing's ( BA ) efforts to acquire the planemaking

arm of Brazil's Embraer, which were abandoned during

the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and helped oversee a marathon

trade spat with Airbus over subsidies.

Now, he joins a small number of companies focusing on

hybrid-electric or battery-powered flight in a category sitting

between helicopters and the crowded eVTOL or flying taxi market

below, and larger regional airplanes above.

Allen said Electra.aero aimed to carve out a specific set of

civil or military missions based on ultra-short landing strips

coupled with the simplicity of a fixed wing aircraft.

"If you are just going to take Jet A (kerosene) on in a

head-to-head contest, you are going to lose. The thesis at

Electra is that it only makes sense to introduce this novel

distributed electric propulsion system if it can do something

that you couldn't otherwise do," he said in an interview.

"A totally different set of missions that opens up. You can

fly goods between warehouses without ever trucking the goods to

the airport. You can just land in the parking lot."

Electra.aero aims to certify its aircraft under general

aviation rules in 2028. Allen said it was comfortable about

certification but acknowledged significant challenges ahead.

"For a young company to get itself off the ground and build

a production system ... is super hard, and along the way we have

got to certify the airplane," he said.

Allen is the latest executive from the traditional aerospace

sector to take senior roles in the emerging electric aviation

industry after former Embraer and GE executive John Slattery

joined Sweden's Heart Aerospace as chairman.

France's Safran Helicopter Engines last year signed

an agreement with Electra to develop an electric turbogenerator

propulsion system