Heart Aerospace flew a 25,000lb electric aeroplane on $5 of power

X1 began its take-off roll at 5:57am. It has a 106-foot wingspan, weighs more than 25,000 pounds at take-off and carries four electric motors where the fuel would normally go.

Its propulsion system delivers more than one megawatt. The aircraft climbed to 1,100 feet, turned above the countryside around Plattsburgh International Airport, and landed 27 minutes later.

Heart Aerospace says the electricity the flight consumed cost about $5.

Forslund founded the company in 2018 with his wife, Klara. There was no aircraft, no factory and no engineering team of any size. There were renders he had made himself and a 3D-printed model he could hold in his hands.

He was not an outsider to the problem. Forslund studied engineering physics in Sweden, specialised in space engineering and astronautics, completed a PhD in aerospace product development and spent time researching at MIT.

So he knew the objection. Jet fuel holds an extraordinary amount of energy for its weight, batteries are heavy, and heavy aeroplanes are hard aeroplanes. He was told repeatedly that the numbers did not work.

His interest was not the fuel. It was the collapse of regional flying. Short routes between smaller cities disappeared over decades as fuel, maintenance, crew and aircraft costs pushed airlines towards bigger jets and bigger airports.

Electric motors have far fewer moving parts than combustion engines. Less maintenance, cheaper energy, lower operating costs — that was the bet, and it was about economics rather than emissions.

Heart was accepted into Y Combinator in 2019. Forslund turned up with the 3D-printed model. That was effectively the pitch.

Airlines then took an interest: United, Mesa and Air Canada. In 2021 the company raised $35 million in a round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate investment organisation founded by Bill Gates. United and Mesa also invested.

Then Forslund changed the product. The original ES-19 was a 19-seat all-electric aircraft; the company now plans the ES-30, a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner using batteries for short flights and generators for extra range and the reserves commercial operations require.

Other things changed too. The headquarters moved from Sweden to Los Angeles. The first X1 wing had a bonding problem and was rebuilt. The empennage was rebuilt. The fuselage was substantially reinforced.

Forslund has said the company was effectively bet on getting X1 airborne. X1 will not carry paying passengers; it is a demonstrator.

The commercial case rests on the ES-30. Heart believes it can cut aircraft operating costs by more than 40% against conventional regional aircraft, which would put abandoned routes and underused airports back into play.

The lesson for founders is not the $5. It is that Heart's aircraft today is not the aircraft it announced, its technical assumptions did not survive, and its home country changed. The destination did not. Seven years separated the model from the runway.

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