It takes off, stays in the air for 27 minutes, climbs to about 335 meters and returns to the runway after consuming, according to the company, about $5 of electricity. It happened on August 12 in Plattsburgh, New York, where Heart Aerospace took its X1 into flight: a white beast with a 32.3 meter wingspan, over 11 tons of take-off weight and four electric motors powered exclusively by batteries. Heart presents it as the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown.
Five dollars makes quite an impression next to 11 tons of airplane. However, it is best to leave them exactly where they are: in the electricity bill of a single experimental flight. That figure does not include pilot, maintenance, batteries, airport, insurance, depreciation of the aircraft and all the rest of what is needed to transform a take-off into a commercial service. The five dollar bill, therefore, can remain in the drawer for a while longer.
The X1 is almost as big as a regional plane, but it is still undergoing tests
The dimensions explain why the test is interesting. The X1 is 23.2 meters long, has a wingspan of 32.3 and exceeds 25 thousand pounds at takeoff, approximately 11,300 kilograms. The propulsion system is completely electric and during the first flight it delivered more than one megawatt of power. The mission included taxiing, takeoff, climb, maneuvers and landing.
However, we are faced with an experimental demonstrator. The On August 12, it stopped at 335 meters and 27 minutes. Enough to prove that an electric aircraft of this size can actually stay in the air; definitely not enough to send him from Rome to Milan with thirty passengers and suitcases.
And this is where the enthusiasm meets an old acquaintance of electric aviation: the weight of the batteries.
The kerosene disappears during the flight, the flat batteries remain on board
A traditional plane starts with fuel in its tanks and consumes it during the journey, becoming progressively lighter. A discharged battery, on the other hand, weighs practically as much as a charged one. The plane must therefore carry with it the entire journey even the cells that have already given up their energy.
Added to this is the energy density: for the same mass, aeronautical fuel can still store much more energy than the batteries available today. For a car, a few hundred kilos more may be manageable. In the sky every kilogram must be lifted and held up there, with a certain obstinacy of physics to present the bill.
The flight of the X1 therefore above all shows how much the scale of electric aviation has grown. In 2020, EASA certified the Pipistrel Velis Electro, a small two-seater intended primarily for training, as the first fully electric aircraft in the world to obtain a type certification. Six years later, a demonstrator with the wingspan of a regional aircraft was able to fly on battery power.
The leap is notable. Autonomy, however, continues to serve as a reminder of why pure electric airliners aren’t already crowding airports.
The plane Heart wants to sell will still have fuel on board
The company’s industrial project itself says so. The X1 serves to develop technologies, systems and procedures for the ES-30, Heart Aerospace’s future 30-passenger regional aircraft. And the ES-30 will be hybrid-electric.
According to the specifications published by the company, it should travel about 200 kilometers on batteries alone. By activating the hybrid system, the declared autonomy increases up to 800 kilometres. Heart also indicates 30 minutes for charging and aims for type certification in 2031. These are the manufacturer’s objectives, so they should be read for what they are: the commercial aircraft still has to go through development, testing and certification.
Heart also claims that the ES-30 could reduce operating costs by more than 40% compared to the company’s benchmark conventional regional aircraft. In fact, electric propulsion promises lower energy costs and mechanically simpler systems. This percentage also belongs, at the moment, to the manufacturer’s forecasts, given that the aircraft that should demonstrate it has yet to enter service.
The first flight of the X1 thus avoids two equally convenient tales. The commercial electric plane didn’t suddenly arrive on five-dollar electricity; at the same time, taking off over 11 tons solely on batteries would have been unthinkable on this scale until a few years ago.
For now the result is all in those 27 minutes: a huge electric plane managed to take off, fly, maneuver and return to the ground. Then you have to go further. And there, together with the passengers, the weight of the batteries also continues to come on board.
