🛩️ The world's largest electric hybrid aircraft has flown for the first time – the electricity cost five dollars

• Heart Aerospace's demonstration aircraft X1 flew for the first time, staying in the air for 27 minutes.
• The electricity for the flight cost about five dollars.
• The production version, the ES-30, is expected to cut operating costs by more than 40 percent compared with today's regional aircraft. The aircraft is in the same size class as a commercial regional airliner.

27 minutes in the air over the Champlain Valley

Early in the morning at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York, an aircraft rolled out onto runway 35. What happened next had never happened before: a battery-powered aircraft in the same size class as a commercial regional airliner took off and flew.

The flight took place on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and lasted 27 minutes. The aircraft, named X1, was flown by one pilot and reached 1,100 feet above the ground, roughly 335 meters. The powertrain, running entirely on batteries, delivered more than one megawatt of power. The test profile included taxiing, takeoff, climb, maneuvering and landing.

The flight was conducted under a special airworthiness certificate in the experimental category, issued by the US aviation authority, the FAA. The certificate came in July 2026 and gave permission to begin flight testing immediately. The test flights take place within a defined envelope: no more than 140 knots, no more than 2,000 feet above the ground and no more than 1.5 G in maneuvering load.

Plattsburgh is a regional commercial airport serving a community of 20,000 residents. That is exactly the kind of traffic Heart Aerospace is aiming for.

Warp News has followed Heart Aerospace since the company's early years and has written about it several times. The first time was in September 2020, when founders Anders Forslund and Klara Andreasson showed off their electric motor in a hangar at Säve airport outside Gothenburg and had a handful of employees. Warp News has since visited the hangar together with readers and reported on the company's steps from drawing board to flying machine.

Five dollars of electricity against a jet fuel price up 63 percent

The X1 used about $5 worth of electricity on its first flight. The figure says something about why Heart Aerospace is building electric aircraft at all.

Over the same period, the price of jet fuel rose sharply. In the week ending August 7, the average price was $3.50 per gallon, or about $0.92 per liter. That is an increase of 63 percent compared with a year earlier. Electric propulsion decouples airlines' operating costs from the swings in the global oil markets.

"With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the size of a commercial airliner," says Anders Forslund, founder and CEO. He describes the company's goal as abundant flight: more, cheaper and cleaner flights to and from airports closer to where people live.

What the X1 was meant to prove

The X1 is not intended to be sold. It is a full-scale demonstrator representing the production aircraft, the ES-30, and it was built to verify technology, aerodynamics, flight performance and the company's own ability to carry out an aircraft program.

Heart lists the steps the program has gone through. The company has designed an airframe from the ground up around electric propulsion, verified the new geometry through simulation and physical testing, developed its own components, and integrated electric motors, batteries, power electronics, control systems and avionics into a flying aircraft. The airframe has been load-tested to its limits and the powertrain has been tested under flight-like conditions.

Added to this is a flight test organization with staff, procedures and analytical capability, along with an established working relationship with the FAA on airworthiness.

"Through the X1 program, Heart has built the capability to design, build, test, operate and continuously improve an all-new electric airliner," says chief technology officer Ben Stabler. That capability is now being carried over to the ES-30.

The size of the aircraft

The X1 measures 32.3 meters between the wingtips, 23.2 meters from nose to tail and 7.3 meters in height. Its takeoff weight exceeds 11,340 kilograms. That makes the X1 the largest battery-electric aircraft ever to have flown.

Propulsion comes from four electric motors mounted on the wings. The aircraft has a T-tail. At the aircraft's unveiling, a cabin mock-up for 30 passengers and a cockpit mock-up were installed on board.

ES-30: 30 seats, 200 kilometers on electricity and 800 kilometers on hybrid power

The ES-30 is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft with 30 seats and hybrid-electric propulsion. It is being developed for certification under the FAA's Part 25 rules, which apply to larger airliners.

According to the planned specifications, the ES-30 will fly 200 kilometers fully on battery and 800 kilometers on hybrid power, with 25 kilograms of baggage per passenger and a 30-minute charging time. The hybrid system is based on two turbogenerators that, according to Heart, will run on sustainable aviation fuel. They provide an energy reserve and supplement battery power on longer legs. These are design targets, not flight-verified performance.

Heart expects the ES-30 to deliver more than 40 percent lower operating costs per aircraft than older regional airliners. The company points to four reasons: lower energy costs, less maintenance thanks to simpler electric propulsion and electrified systems, higher availability through an integrated electronics and software architecture, and low exposure to the emissions-related taxes and fees that are growing in aviation markets around the world.

The range is suited to short routes. In North and South America there are 5,000 airports and a network dominated by routes under 500 miles, or about 800 kilometers. In Europe, the same range covers large parts of the continent.

From a 1:5 scale model to full-scale flight

The road here has come in clear steps. Heart Aerospace started in 2018 with two people in hangars at Säve airport outside Gothenburg.

The first aircraft was called the ES-19 and was a planned 19-seat all-electric regional airliner with a stated range of up to 400 kilometers. On December 17, 2021, the company flew an unmanned 1:5 scale model of the ES-19 at Säve. The model had a 4.6-meter wingspan, flew for four and a half minutes and reached a top speed of 150 kilometers per hour. In parallel, a full-scale powertrain demonstrator had been ground-tested for more than a year.

In September 2022, Heart set the ES-19 aside and instead presented the 30-seat ES-30 with hybrid propulsion. This was a new product configuration rather than a scaling up of a finished aircraft. Earlier orders from United and Mesa were, according to the company, confirmed for the new model.

From early on, the strategy was about avoiding unnecessary risk. The company chose not to design an entirely new aircraft in every respect, but to use proven parts and adapt what is required when batteries and electric motors replace jet fuel and piston engines. "The principles of aircraft design are low speed, low altitude, conventional design to be safe, low risk, boring and easier to certify," said Philip Keenan, then head of airworthiness and certification, during a visit to the hangar in 2022.

The airlines that have put money in

The ES-30 has customer commitments from United Airlines, Air Canada and JSX. Heart says the combined customer commitments amount to $9.4 billion.

"The first flight of X1 is a major technical achievement for Heart Aerospace, a company United has been proud to support," says Michael Leskinen, chief financial officer at United Airlines. He points out that electric airliners can deliver a better travel experience for passengers while also strengthening the airline's business.

John Di Bert, deputy group chief executive and chief financial officer at Air Canada, describes the X1's first flight as an important milestone. "Our investment in Heart Aerospace and the ES-30 reflects Air Canada's commitment to supporting innovative technology that has the potential to change aviation," he says.

The next step is being built in Los Angeles

Heart Aerospace is headquartered in Los Angeles. There, the company is now developing the first pre-production example of the ES-30 in its pilot factory.

Flight testing of the ES-30 is planned to begin in 2028. Type certification and entry into service are set for 2031.

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