Heart Aerospace is aiming to achieve certification for its ES-30 aircraft by the end of the decade. Credit: Heart Aerospace.

Swedish aircraft manufacturer Heart Aerospace has unveiled the first full-scale demonstrator vehicle for its hybrid-electric propulsion technology as it continues the development of its ES-30 aircraft.

The Heart Experimental 1 (HX-1) vehicle was almost entirely built in-house at the company’s facility in Gothenburg and will initially be used for ground testing of charging operations, taxiing, and turnaround procedures before taking flight in Q2 2025.

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Heart Aerospace CEO Anders Forslund said: “Our industry is approaching a 30-year innovation cycle, and we have less than 25 years to decarbonise aviation. We need to develop new methods to get net-zero aerospace technologies to market faster.

“It is a testament to the ingenuity and dedication of our team that we’re able to roll out a 30-seat aircraft demonstrator with a brand-new propulsion system, largely inhouse, in less than two years.” 

The manufacturer said it would be preparing for the HX-1’s first flight by trialling critical systems with a series of hardware tests run both on and off the aircraft. 

Information gathered during the testing of HX-1 will be used to inform the design of Heart’s HX-2 prototype aircraft which is scheduled to conduct its first flight in 2026 and will be followed by production of the first ES-30 planes.

While Heart has been developing its technology since 2018, the company only began focussing on building the ES-30 in 2022 after scrapping an earlier design but now aims to achieve type certification for its aircraft by the end of the decade.

The aircraft is planned to have a range of 200km on all-electric power and a range of 400km if used in hybrid mode, increasing to 800km if only 25 passengers are on board.

Development of the hybrid-electric aircraft recently received a boost in the UK as Heart signed a partnership with Scottish regional airline Loganair, agreeing to cooperate on establishing use cases for the ES-30 and promoting the technology to local governments.