Game-changing 27-minute test flight of Heart X1 in upstate New York uses just $5 of electricity.
There’s a revolution in the air. At least, that’s the impression given by the successful test of 30-seater hybrid-electric plane, which took a 27-minute flight from a regional airport in New York, running on electric battery power for the entire duration. The Los Angeles-based Heart, which developed the X1 aircraft, says the test flight used just $5 dollars-worth of electricity.
Traditional aviation fuel is expensive. The burning of fossil fuels also produces gas such as CO2 and nitrous oxides, as well as noise and particulates, and contributes to climate change. While airlines have become more fuel efficient, such efforts have been outstripped by the rapid increase in the volume of air travel. According to the European Commission, aviation generates 13.9% of all greenhouse gas emissions from transport, 3.8% to 4% of all European Union emissions and 2% of all global CO2 emissions.
Initiatives to curb pollutions and emissions range from increased taxes on flights and the use of more sustainable aviation fuels such as biofuel. But electrification of airflight has, so far, been an issue.
One key problem is that amount of energy that can be stored in batteries anyway, with a pay-off between range and weight. Planes are heavy, especially when full of passengers, and so require a lot of energy to keep them airborne. At the moment, aviation fuel stores a lot more energy per volume than electric batteries – so batteries take up more space on an aircraft, meaning less room for passengers and luggage, and less income for the airline.
What’s more, as an aircraft burns through traditional aviation fuel, the plane becomes lighter – and so needs less fuel. The same economies do not apply to electric batteries, which remain the same weight for the duration of a flight.
The Heart test flight doesn’t solve these problems for long-haul flights, but it demonstrates that electrification can work on smaller, short-range aircraft. It involved a single pilot flying with no other passengers, and reached an altitude of 1,100 feet, but the company says that the 25,000 lb X1 aircraft is the largest fully battery-powered plane to ever fly, and that it could travel an estimated 125 miles on battery power alone. That isn’t a huge distance – not least because commercial airlines must also ensure they have reserves of power in case anything goes wrong. But Heart says the range could be extended to some 500 miles with a hybrid combustion engine.
As a test plane, the X1 isn’t meant to go into service carrying passengers, but the company aims to apply what it’s learned from the ongoing testing in its ES-30 aircraft – a hybrid-electric 30-seater aircraft that it hopes will be in service by 2031.
The company suggests its ES-30 could be 40% cheaper to operate than a comparable conventional aircraft. That’s in part due to using less aviation fuel – which is expensive – but also because electric motors involve fewer moving parts than conventional engines, so need less maintenance and repair.
Of course, a lot of different factors are involved here. The figure of $5 dollars-worth of electricity covers only the energy used in the test flight, and not the other costs associated with running flights or an airline such as labour, airport charges, insurance, maintenance etc.
And yet it’s hard not to be wowed by the success of this entirely electric test flight, and the promise of cheaper, cleaner air travel. Leading airlines Air Canada, JSX and United have all expressed interest in the ES-30, and other companies are also investigating the potential of electric and hybrid-powered flight. It’s certainly an area of interest – so keep watching the skies.
Anders Forslund, Founder and CEO of Heart, says: ‘With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the scale of a commercial airliner.’
Photo: the X1 hybrid aircraft on its all-electric test flight, courtesy of Heart.
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