Scottish airline Loganair is looking at how hybrid-electric aircraft might be used on its routes in the future. See illustration of Loganair livery applied to a prototype design.
Glasgow-based Loganair serves a network of more than 30 destinations across the UK and additional points in Ireland, Norway and Denmark with a fleet of 44 aircraft, ranging from nine-seat Britten-Norman Islanders and 19-seat De Havilland Twin Otters to 49-passenger Embraer ERJ jets and 70-seat ATR 72-600 turboprops.
A collaborative partnership with Heart Aerospace introduces the ES-30 as a future option, with a fully electric zero emissions range of 124 miles (200 kilometres), an extended hybrid flying range of 400 kilometres with up to 30 passengers, and capacity to fly up to 800 kilometres with 25 passengers, with all operating settings including typical airline reserves.
Heart Aerospace, the Swedish hybrid-electric airplane maker, has unveiled its first full-scale demonstrator airplane, marking a major milestone in the development of its regional hybrid-electric aircraft, the ES-30.
Built almost entirely in-house at Heart’s Gothenburg facilities, the demonstrator, named Heart Experimental 1 (Heart X1), will serve as a platform for rigorous testing and development of Heart’s ES-30 aircraft.
Initially, the Heart X1 will be used for ground-based testing, focusing on charging operations, taxiing, and turnaround procedures. It is scheduled to undertake a fully electric first flight in the second quarter of 2025. In preparation for this flight, Heart will over the coming months, test critical systems by running hardware tests both on and off the airplane.
Heart’s next step in developing the ES-30 is the building of a pre-production prototype, the Heart X2, which will further mature the design and production methods based on lessons learned from the Heart X1.
The Heart X2 is scheduled for a hybrid-electric flight in 2026 and will demonstrate the company’s Independent Hybrid propulsion system.
This momentum is intended to continue with the establishment of a pilot manufacturing plant to accelerate prototyping toward the manufacturing of a fully conforming aircraft, with Heart targeting type certification of the ES-30 by the end of the decade.
The project is one of a number of initiatives aimed at decarbonising aviation.
Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (Hitrans) has been looking at the use of large electric aircraft called Airlanders for carrying passengers and freight on Scottish regional routes. Full-scale production of the part-plane, part-airship could begin by the end of this decade, and there is a plan to reserve six of the first aircraft manufactured for use by Hitrans.
Scotland’s first electric-powered aircraft took to the skies in 2021 from a test centre in Orkney. One of the twin engines in Ampaire’s six-seater Cessna Skymaster was replaced with an electric motor.
