Heart Aerospace and the thirty-seat hybrid-electric airliner being built in Sweden

Heart Aerospace, a Swedish startup based in Gothenburg, is building the ES-30, a thirty-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner designed to replace aging turboprops on short-haul routes. Unlike eVTOL air taxis or fantasies about electrifying narrowbody jets, the ES-30 targets the realistic middle ground: regional routes under 250 nautical miles, using a series-hybrid powertrain that runs on batteries when it can and turbogenerators when it must.

Why Did Heart Aerospace Abandon Its Original Design?

The ES-30 evolved from an earlier concept called the ES-19, a nineteen-seat, fully electric aircraft announced in 2020 with a 200-nautical-mile range. United Airlines and Mesa Air Group placed conditional orders, and the hype cycle spun up accordingly.

Then Heart did something unusual for a startup: they reassessed the physics and the airline economics, and scrapped the ES-19 in 2022. The replacement — the ES-30 — is larger, seats thirty passengers, and uses a hybrid-electric powertrain instead of pure battery power. This was not a retreat. It was an engineering team being honest about where battery technology actually stands.

How Does the ES-30’s Hybrid-Electric Powertrain Work?

The ES-30 operates in three distinct modes depending on route length:

Battery-only (up to ~100 nautical miles): Two electric motors drive the propellers using onboard battery packs. Zero emissions in flight.

Hybrid mode (up to ~200 nautical miles): A pair of small turbogenerators in the rear fuselage burn sustainable aviation fuel (or conventional jet fuel) to generate electricity and supplement the batteries. Think of it like the range extender in an early Chevrolet Volt.

Full generator mode (up to ~250 nautical miles): The turbogenerators carry the full electrical load. The aircraft is essentially a series-hybrid — still more efficient than a conventional turboprop because the generators run at a constant, optimized speed while electric motors handle propulsion.

This maps directly onto how regional airlines actually operate. Routes like Portland to Medford, Chicago to Green Bay, or Dallas to Wichita — many under 150 nautical miles — could run on battery power alone or close to it.

What Are the Technical Specifications?

The ES-30 uses a high-voltage DC electrical architecture at roughly 800 volts, similar to the latest electric vehicles but new for aviation. Key technical details include:

• Motors: Permanent magnet synchronous motors, each producing approximately 1.5 megawatts (~2,000 horsepower). This places the ES-30 in the same power class as a Dash 8-300 turboprop.
• Power electronics: Heart is developing inverters in-house because automotive components lack aviation certification and reliability requirements. These must perform flawlessly from hot tarmac temperatures to -40 degrees at cruise altitude.
• Noise: The ES-30 is projected to be about 15 decibels quieter at takeoff than a comparable turboprop — roughly half as loud to the human ear. This could enable extended operating hours and fewer noise restrictions at regional airports.

What Are the Realistic Challenges?

Battery weight remains the fundamental constraint. Current lithium-ion batteries deliver roughly 200–250 watt-hours per kilogram at the pack level. Jet fuel delivers approximately 12,000 watt-hours per kilogram — a factor of nearly fifty. Heart has engineered around this by keeping pure-electric range short, but the aircraft is heavier than an equivalent turboprop.

Charging infrastructure does not exist at most regional airports. The ES-30 requires serious electrical power at the gate. Many regional airports lack the capacity, and the chicken-and-egg problem is real: airlines will not commit routes without infrastructure, and airports will not invest without airline commitments.

Certification is uncharted territory. Heart is pursuing EASA type certification targeting approximately 2028, with FAA validation to follow. The conventional airframe (fixed wing, conventional tail and flight controls) helps, but hybrid-electric propulsion is new regulatory ground. Aviation certification timelines almost always slip.

The order book is conditional, not firm. Heart holds letters of intent and conditional orders from United Airlines, Mesa Air Group, Air Canada, Braathens Regional Airlines, and others — over 200 aircraft total. But conditional orders are options, not commitments. They convert to firm purchases only after the aircraft is built, certified, and performs as promised.

Why Does This Matter for Regional Aviation?

Since 2012, the number of U.S. airports with scheduled commercial service has dropped significantly. Small communities lost air links because 50-seat regional jets are too expensive on thin routes, and no manufacturer was building a modern turboprop replacement. The ES-30’s economics could reverse that trend.

Heart projects operating costs roughly 30% lower than a conventional turboprop on a per-seat-mile basis when running on battery power. Even in hybrid mode, electric motor simplicity (fewer moving parts, lower maintenance) and reduced fuel burn provide a meaningful cost advantage.

There is also a built-in upgrade path. As battery energy density improves at roughly 5–8% per year at the cell level, the ES-30’s pure-electric range grows without airframe changes. An aircraft certified in 2028 with 100 nautical miles of battery range could reach 140 nautical miles by 2033 with a battery pack swap. The turbogenerators gradually shift from necessity to safety margin.

Who Is Behind Heart Aerospace?

Founder Anders Forslund is an engineer from Chalmers University of Technology. The chief technology officer came from Airbus. The company employs approximately 500 people in Gothenburg and has built a full-scale iron bird — a systems integration rig for testing every subsystem before the first prototype flies. Heart broke ground on a final assembly facility in 2024.

Why the ES-30 Has Better Odds Than Most

The ES-30 is not trying to invent a new category of flight. It is building a better turboprop. The missions exist. The airports exist. The pilots exist. The regulatory framework for a fixed-wing, piloted, thirty-seat aircraft exists. Heart only has to prove the hybrid-electric propulsion works, scales, and saves money — which is hard enough without also trying to convince the world it needs flying taxis.

Key Takeaways

• Heart Aerospace’s ES-30 is a thirty-seat hybrid-electric airliner targeting the regional turboprop market that major manufacturers abandoned, with EASA certification targeted around 2028.
• The series-hybrid powertrain operates in three modes: pure battery for short routes (~100 nm), hybrid for medium routes (~200 nm), and full generator for longer legs (~250 nm).
• Operating costs could be 30% lower than conventional turboprops on battery-powered routes, with potential to reopen regional routes that airlines dropped over the past decade.
• Significant challenges remain: battery energy density limits, regional airport charging infrastructure gaps, unproven certification pathways for hybrid-electric propulsion, and an order book built on conditional commitments.
• The design includes a built-in upgrade path — as battery technology improves annually, the pure-electric range extends without requiring airframe modifications.