A white plane with upturned wings looped over the Connecticut River before it touched down with a whisper at the Lebanon Municipal Airport on Friday. But its quiet landing belied the noise it's making for a Vermont company looking to disrupt an arm of transportation that's so far eluded environmentally friendly alternatives.

The plane that landed in West Lebanon, the battery-powered ALIA-250c, had just flown 133 miles from Burlington, the home of Beta Technologies, an aerospace company at the vanguard of electric plane tech.

The ALIA had just made its first flight to an airport outside Beta's testing facilities, then stopped for its layover in Lebanon before moving on to Manchester and then back home to Burlington on Monday.