Heart Aerospace and the ES-thirty hybrid-electric regional airplane being built in Sweden

Heart Aerospace, a Swedish company based in Gothenburg, is building the ES-30, a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airplane designed from a clean sheet — the first new regional aircraft architecture in roughly two decades. Backed by United Airlines, Mesa Air Group, Air Canada, Saab, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the ES-30 targets a 2028 entry into service with the potential to cut operating costs by 30 percent and reduce emissions by up to 90 percent on battery-only flights.

Why Does Regional Aviation Need a New Airplane?

The last time someone designed a brand-new regional airplane from scratch rather than stretching or re-engining an existing type was a generation ago. The economics of 50- and 70-seat regional jets killed small turboprop routes across the United States and Europe, leaving hundreds of small airports without scheduled service. Towns of 20,000 people simply could not justify the cost of operating those jets.

A 30-seat airplane with dramatically lower fuel and maintenance costs could reopen those abandoned routes. That is the gap Heart Aerospace is targeting.

How the ES-30’s Hybrid-Electric Powertrain Works

The ES-30 uses two electric motors driving propellers, one on each wing, fed by an onboard battery pack. The system operates in two modes:

• Battery-only mode: On flights up to roughly 100 nautical miles, the airplane runs entirely on stored electrical energy. Zero in-flight emissions. Minimal noise.
• Hybrid mode: For longer routes, two turbogenerators in the rear fuselage burn sustainable aviation fuel to generate electricity that supplements the batteries. This extends range to approximately 220 nautical miles with 30 passengers, or further with a reduced load of 25 passengers.

The turbogenerators are not mechanically connected to the propellers. They function as onboard power plants running at optimal, constant efficiency rather than throttling through a variable flight profile like conventional turboprops. This design contributes to significant emissions reductions even on hybrid flights.

From the ES-19 to the ES-30: Why Heart Abandoned Pure Electric

Heart Aerospace originally designed the ES-19, a fully electric 19-seat aircraft with a promised range of about 200 nautical miles. The concept was clean, but it collided with a hard physics constraint: the best lithium-ion cells available today carry roughly one-fortieth the energy per kilogram that jet fuel provides.

When airlines examined the numbers seriously — accounting for diversion reserves, headwinds, hot-and-high airports — the margins were too thin. In 2022, Heart scrapped the purist vision, scaled up to 30 seats, and added the hybrid-electric architecture. The result is an airplane that sacrifices ideological purity for operational viability.

What Makes Heart Aerospace Credible?

Several factors distinguish Heart from the long list of electric aviation startups that have announced ambitious timelines and missed them.

The team. CEO Anders Forslund, an aerospace engineer, co-founded Heart while studying at Chalmers University of Technology. The company has hired aggressively from Saab’s aerospace division — engineers with systems-integration experience from the Gripen fighter jet program.

The investment. United Airlines ordered 100 aircraft. Mesa Air Group signed for 200. Air Canada committed to 30. Saab took an equity stake and is providing manufacturing expertise. Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures participated in funding rounds. This is capital from organizations that scrutinize business cases rigorously.

The factory. Heart is building a dedicated production facility in Gothenburg designed for serial production from day one, not prototype-stage manufacturing with a hope of scaling later.

The Certification Path

The ES-30 is being certified under EASA CS-23, the commuter aircraft category, which provides a well-understood regulatory pathway. Heart is fitting a novel propulsion concept into an existing framework rather than trying to create a new certification category — a significantly shorter route to approval.

The airframe itself is deliberately conventional: high wing, T-tail, retractable tricycle gear, pressurized cabin. It is designed for the runways, gates, and airports that regional turboprops already serve. No new infrastructure, no vertiports, no nonexistent air traffic control procedures.

Why Hybrid-Electric Matters for the Industry Right Now

The aviation industry has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 under the International Civil Aviation Organization framework. Airlines face mounting pressure from regulators, investors, and passengers.

The available solutions each have limitations. Sustainable aviation fuel is scarce and expensive. Pure electric works for training aircraft and very short hops but lacks the energy density for meaningful commercial range. Hydrogen requires entirely new ground infrastructure.

Hybrid-electric occupies the practical middle ground. Heart estimates the ES-30’s electric drivetrain will have roughly half the maintenance costs of a conventional turboprop, owing to the far fewer moving parts in electric motors.

What This Means for General Aviation Pilots

The motor controllers, battery management systems, and power electronics Heart is developing at the 30-seat scale will eventually inform what goes into four- and six-seat airplanes. Every engineering problem solved in thermal management, redundancy architecture, and energy recovery creates knowledge the broader industry can build on. Technology flows downhill from commercial programs to general aviation.

The Real Risks

Battery energy density. Heart’s performance projections assume specific battery capabilities at entry into service. If cell technology does not reach those targets, range shrinks or passenger capacity drops.

Certification novelty. Hybrid-electric propulsion certification is genuinely unprecedented. EASA has been proactive, but unanswered questions remain about failure modes, thermal runaway protection near passengers, and certifying a turbogenerator decoupled from the propellers.

Manufacturing at scale. Building a new aircraft type in serial production is extraordinarily difficult. Companies with sound designs and talented engineers have stumbled at this stage.

Key Takeaways

• Heart Aerospace’s ES-30 is a clean-sheet, 30-seat hybrid-electric regional aircraft targeting 2028 entry into service under EASA CS-23 certification.
• The airplane operates on battery power alone for flights up to 100 nautical miles and switches to hybrid mode using rear-mounted turbogenerators for routes up to 220 nautical miles.
• Heart pivoted from a pure-electric design after confronting the hard physics of battery energy density — a pragmatic decision that dramatically improves operational viability.
• Backed by United Airlines (100 aircraft), Mesa Air Group (200), Air Canada (30), Saab, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the program has serious financial and industrial credibility.
• If the ES-30 delivers close to its projected economics, it could restore scheduled service to small airports that lost turboprop routes over the past two decades.