Heart Aerospace unveils ES-36 hybrid-electric design, its fourth iteration

Heart Aerospace has unveiled a new version of the regional aircraft it intends to bring to market, the ES-36. It is the company's fourth design revision and abandons the four-engine layout of the ES-30 it replaces.

Two electric motors of 1.65MW each drive the aircraft. They draw power either from batteries charged on the ground for all-electric flight or from a pair of 1MW-class turbogenerators arranged in series. Wingspan drops by about 3.3m to 29m. Heart says the change is meant to widen the production aircraft's cost advantage over older regional types.

The redesign was disclosed alongside an agreement backed by deposits from the carrier JSX covering 50 examples.

Heart started with the 19-seat ES-19. In 2022 it moved to the original ES-30: 30 seats, four 700kW-class electric motors, roughly 5t of batteries and twin turbogenerators in the rear fuselage to extend range. That layout was set aside in 2024 for an independent hybrid architecture pairing two 1.6MW electric motors with two gas turbines in the 1,600shp (1,190kW) range. Strut bracing on the wing and a large under-fuselage battery bay were dropped at the same time.

The ES-36 is quoted at 108nm (200km) in all-electric mode and 647nm with the turbogenerator, both excluding reserves. The ES-30 was quoted at 108nm and 434nm. The new aircraft also adds six passenger seats and 640kg of payload over its predecessor.