Heart Aerospace, 6 Years After EIC Accelerator Grant: First Flight

On 12 August 2026 a four-motor, battery-powered aircraft with a 106-foot wingspan took off from Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York, flew for 27 minutes and climbed to 1,100 feet. Its builder, Heart Aerospace, called the X1 "the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown", according to the company's announcement, a claim AVweb repeated as the company's. Six years earlier, as a two-year-old start-up in Gothenburg, Heart had won a €2.5 million EU grant to make the electric drivetrain for a 19-seat airliner that was to enter service in 2025.

The European Commission's list of the 19 May 2020 Green Deal winners of the EIC Accelerator pilot names Heart Aerospace alone for the project, QualE-fly, with grant-only funding. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,500,000 towards a total cost of €4,783,500, from 1 December 2020 to 30 June 2023. Since then the 19-seater has been dropped, the company has moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, and its first production aircraft is now due in 2031.

Where Heart Aerospace Stands Now

Heart is active and flying. After the X1's first flight, which AVweb says took place under an FAA experimental certificate issued in July 2026, the company unveiled a new production design on 23 September 2026. The ES-36 is a 36-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner that replaces the 30-seat ES-30, with two electric motors of 1.65 MW each, a turbogenerator on each side as a range extender, about 200 km of battery-only range and 1,200 km in hybrid mode, according to airliners.de. A pre-production aircraft is being built at Heart's plant in Los Angeles for a first flight in the second half of 2028 and entry into service in 2031, after FAA certification. The regional carrier JSX turned a 2023 letter of intent into a deposit-backed agreement for 50 aircraft, with rights to 50 more.

Heart says its customer commitments are worth $9.4 billion in its August 2026 release; airliners.de reports the company's figure as more than $9 billion. Neither gives the number of firm orders, and the deposits are not disclosed.

The Technology: An Airliner Drivetrain You Can Certify

Battery-electric motors are simpler and cheaper to run than turboprops, but batteries store far less energy per kilogram than jet fuel, which limits range and seats. Heart's bet has been that short regional routes are within reach. QualE-fly was to turn its prototype drivetrain, an electric motor, motor controller and propeller actuators run by its Electric Propulsion Automatic Control System, into a product that meets aviation certification and safety standards, the CORDIS objective says.

The aircraft around the drivetrain has changed three times. The ES-19 was a 19-seat battery-electric plane with up to 400 km of range, and United and Mesa ordered 200 of them in July 2021, according to Heart's Series A release. In September 2022 Heart replaced it with the 30-seat ES-30, adding two turbogenerators burning sustainable aviation fuel for reserve energy, with 200 km of electric range and service entry in 2028, according to the company and AIN. The ES-36 now cuts the number of electric motors from four to two. Each step moved Heart further from the pure battery airliner the EIC funded and towards a hybrid. No public source says whether the motors on the X1 or the ES-36 are the QualE-fly design.

What QualE-fly Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The grant was to take the drivetrain from technology readiness level 5, a validated prototype, to level 8, a complete and qualified system, through two work packages: formal requirements and design for certifiability, then manufacturing and qualification ground tests. The drivetrain was to fly in the ES-19 from 2025 and be reused in a 48-seat ES-48 from 2032, the objective says.

The final periodic report, covering December 2021 to June 2023, lowers the target: the EIC support "will mature the certifiable electric drivetrain to Technology Readiness Level TRL7", to enable "an extensive flight test validation program in 2026" and certification and commercialisation by 2028. It reports a certification department, an application to EASA for Design Organisation Approval, supplier contracts, and an integrated test facility, an "iron bird" with a full-size ES-30 structure and cockpit, where two motors ran simulated flights from take-off to landing. In qualification tests at SEEL the inverter stayed below its 90°C limit and vibration stayed within the DO-160G standard. CORDIS lists no public deliverables or publications, only an EU trademark for "HEART", on its results page.

1. Requirements and design for certifiabilityDeliveredCertification department, EASA DOA application, ARP 4754 safety assessment, per the CORDIS report.
2. Manufacture and ground-test the drivetrainDeliveredIron bird integration flights and SEEL temperature and vibration tests.
3. Qualified system at TRL 8Not achievedThe report itself targets TRL 7; no qualified drivetrain has been announced.
4. ES-19 in service in 2025Not achievedES-19 dropped in 2022; first production airliner now due in 2031.
5. Flight tests in 2026PartlyX1 demonstrator flew in August 2026, under an experimental FAA certificate.

The project produced real engineering within its 31-month term. What it did not produce is the product it was sold on: a drivetrain qualified for a commercial airliner. The certification path also left Europe. The CORDIS report describes an EASA Design Organisation Approval application, and the 2024 Series B announcement, as reported by eVTOL Insights, mentions an active EASA type certification application for the ES-30. The 2026 plan is FAA Part 25 certification.

What Heart Has Achieved Since the Award

The money came fast. Heart closed a $35 million Series A in July 2021, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, United Airlines Ventures and Mesa Air Group, according to its release. Air Canada and Saab invested $5 million each in September 2022, and Air Canada ordered 30 ES-30s, according to AIN, which put the staff at 130 and reported a plan to reach about 500 by 2025. In February 2024 Heart raised a $107 million Series B, bringing total financing to $145 million, according to eVTOL Insights, and in April 2025 it said it had "recently secured an additional $40 million investment", according to its relocation release reprinted by Runway Girl Network and reported by eVTOL Insights. The investors in the 2025 money are not public.

The cuts came in two waves. Two weeks after the Series B, Heart gave notice to about 70 employees as part of a reorganisation, according to Realtid, which said the company had about 200 staff in November 2023; tech.eu, citing Flight Global, puts the February 2024 cuts at 72 roles after a major ES-30 design change. On 30 April 2025 Heart said it would close its Swedish operations and move its headquarters to Los Angeles, which tech.eu reports ended 75 Swedish roles. Forslund said customers, partners and investors were "increasingly based in the U.S.", according to eVTOL Insights.

Heart also joined a second EU project: NEXTBAT, a Horizon Europe battery project coordinated by Finland's VTT, which runs to 30 November 2026 and lists Heart Aerospace AB with an EU contribution of €235,000, a figure North Data also records alongside Swedish state aid and patent filings.

The Money in Sweden

The Swedish company still exists. Syna lists Heart Aerospace AB as active, with Anders Forslund as chair, no chief executive, and its registered address still at Fredsflottiljens Väg 19 in Gothenburg. Its accounts, published by Hitta.se, show losses of SEK 532.0 million in 2023, SEK 339.1 million in 2024 and SEK 146.5 million in 2025, equity down from SEK 96.1 million to SEK 19.1 million, and total assets of SEK 22.8 million at the end of 2025, with no fixed assets left. Both sources give 2025 revenue of SEK 47.3 million, but they disagree on 2024: Hitta lists SEK 27.0 million, while Syna's stated 357.3% rise implies about SEK 10.3 million.

These are the accounts of the Swedish entity only. The registers name no parent company, and the accounts of the US business, where Heart's aircraft are now built, are not public. Group revenue, losses and headcount therefore cannot be checked.

Why Europe Should Care

The European Commission launched the Alliance for Zero-Emission Aviation in June 2022 to "prepare the market for the entry into service" of hydrogen and electric aircraft. Heart was one of the EU's early bets in that field: a Green Deal grant, Swedish state aid, a Horizon Europe battery project and an EIC Fund stake. The aircraft that came out of it is now designed, built, flown and to be certified in the United States, by a company that its chief executive said moved because its customers and investors are there. For a programme meant to build European technology champions, Heart is a case of EU money helping to create one that left.

The Verdict

Heart Aerospace has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.