The World’s Largest Electric Aircraft Just Flew

HART Aerospace has achieved a major milestone with the first flight of its hybrid-electric aircraft, which features a 100-foot wingspan, weighs 25,000 pounds at takeoff, and costs only $5 in electricity per flight. The successor model, the ES-30, will fly up to 125 miles on battery alone, 500 miles as a hybrid, and recharge in approximately 30 minutes, making it the world's largest electric aircraft by a factor of two and the first clean sheet airliner designed in any category in the US in 18 years.

CEO Anders Forslund began his journey seven years ago at Y Combinator with just a 3D-printed model and co-founder Clara. The company identified a fundamental problem with jet engines: they are equally complex and expensive to build for 30-seat and 70-seat aircraft, creating no economies of scale for smaller planes. Jet engines are also highly inefficient during taxi, takeoff, and landing phases, with short-haul flights potentially consuming 10% of fuel just taxiing. The market opportunity is substantial, as half of all flights worldwide are under two hours, and regional aircraft are typically 40-year-old designs.

HTART's solution replaces jet engines with electric motors that have essentially one moving part, no combustion, require virtually no maintenance, and operate nearly silently. The aircraft uses eight battery packs equivalent to four Tesla vehicles. Anders discovered the concept after Elon Musk spoke at MIT about electric transportation 12 years ago. He conducted government-funded research interviewing Nordic airlines before founding the company, building relationships that yielded early letters of intent from SAS and other carriers.

The company deliberately designed the aircraft to look like conventional turboprops rather than futuristic concept vehicles. At Y Combinator Demo Day, they presented only a 3D model, but this attracted attention from airlines. A pre-order from United Airlines eventually came through an unsolicited email that was initially in the spam folder. This demonstrated the importance of having material, physical evidence of progress when raising capital.

HTART manufactures much of the plane in-house rather than relying on numerous suppliers, including custom-designed actuators for ailerons, rudders, landing gear, and propeller pitch control. The pilot plant operates as one integrated test bench where components can be deconstructed and tested. The cockpit design was inspired by Tesla's minimalist single-screen approach.

The battery lab team is evaluating cells from Chinese, American, and Korean manufacturers to meet performance targets. Current cells achieve approximately 370 watt-hours per kilogram, approaching Elon's previously mentioned 400 watt-hour-per-kilogram benchmark, with manufacturers expected to deliver 400-level cells within months.

The company adopted a SpaceX-inspired philosophy: rather than minimizing probability of catastrophic impact (traditional aerospace approach), they focus on minimizing the impact of getting things wrong, allowing for cheaper and faster iteration. The team emphasizes that modern aircraft crashes result from broken logic rather than structural failure, so they're building a software-defined vehicle where computers control wing functions.

HTART chose a hybrid system because fully electric aircraft must carry reserves for emergencies: one in 1,000 US flights gets diverted, requiring 45 minutes of loiter time plus 100 miles to reach an alternate airport. This means battery-only aircraft would need to carry two-thirds of battery capacity in reserves. The hybrid solution uses a simple, inexpensive turboprop engine as backup, adding 20% to upfront costs but enabling 125-mile all-electric range and 500-mile hybrid range.

The company rejected alternatives like flying taxis (too small, requiring new infrastructure) and hydrogen (narrower economic advantage than hybrid-electric, which already has negative green premium compared to conventional aircraft). HART targets the mainline regional aircraft market serving 5,000 existing US airports.

Operating economics have improved from 33% better to 48% better than conventional aircraft in the past year due to oil price increases. The 36-passenger design provides six inches of extra legroom compared to typical regional aircraft. Unlike traditional depreciating assets, these aircraft will become appreciating assets, improving over time as battery technology advances, making aircraft purchase equivalent to buying real estate.

Longer-term plans include larger aircraft competing with the 737 and A320 market (which have substantial backlogs), remote piloting where one pilot manages multiple aircraft, eventual cargo autonomy, and then passenger autonomy. The lower noise and vibration profiles enable neighborhood airport operations, potentially returning aviation accessibility to historical levels.

HTART intentionally located in Los Angeles, recognizing it as the epicenter of aerospace innovation following SpaceX's revolution of the rocket industry. Anders emphasized that success requires deep passion for solving the problem rather than desire to be a founder, and that identifying exceptional teammates matters more than prior aerospace expertise.