Heart Aerospace reveals hybrid-electric aircraft demonstrator

Heart Aerospace (Gothenburg, Sweden) unveils its first full-scale demonstrator airplane, marking a milestone in the development of its regional hybrid-electric aircraft, the ES-30.

“Our industry is approaching a 30-year innovation cycle, and we have less than 25 years to decarbonize aviation. We need to develop new methods to get net-zero aerospace technologies to market faster,” says Anders Forslund, co-founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. “It is a testament to the ingenuity and dedication of our team that we’re able to roll out a 30-seat aircraft demonstrator with a new propulsion system, largely in-house, in less than 2 years.”

With a 32-meter wingspan, the demonstrator, named Heart Experimental 1 (Heart X1), serves as a platform for rigorous testing and development of Heart's ES-30 aircraft. The demonstrator features a composite fuselage and wing and, unlike the final version, is powered solely by four 400-kilowatt electric motors built by Italian firm Phase. Moreover, the company’s new nacelle integration design, which uses Heart’s automated composite technology,” will be incorporated into the upcoming prototype.

Initially, the HX-1 is being used for ground-based testing, focusing on charging operations, taxiing and turnaround procedures. It is scheduled to undertake a fully electric first flight in the second quarter of 2025. In preparation for this flight, Heart, over the coming months, is testing critical systems by running hardware tests both on and off the airplane.

Development of the Heart X1 has been funded in part by grants provided by the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, highlighting the collaboration between government and industry that can bring new aviation technologies to market.

Building on the experience of developing the Heart X1, the company is now focused on creating an aircraft manufacturing process that leans into the latest technologies in composites manufacturing and product lifecycle management, building a data-driven assembly line with high repeatability, automation and nondestructive inspection.

Heart’s next step in developing the ES-30 is the building of a pre-production prototype, the Heart X2, which aims to further mature the design and production methods based on lessons learned from the Heart X1.

The Heart X2 is scheduled for a hybrid flight in 2026 and is set to demonstrate the company’s Independent Hybrid propulsion system. In August of this year, Heart Aerospace was selected for a $4.1 million grant by the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Fuelling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program to develop the management system for the hybrid-electric propulsion.

This momentum will continue with the establishment of a pilot manufacturing plant to accelerate prototyping toward the manufacturing of a fully conforming aircraft, with Heart targeting type certification of the ES-30 by the end of the decade.

The ES-30 is a regional hybrid-electric airplane with a standard seating capacity of 30 passengers, which intends to deliver sustainability and efficiency on short-haul routes. It contains an electric zero-emission range of 200 kilometers and an extended hybrid range of 400 kilometers.