US airline United Airlines is aiming to have electric aircraft flying regional routes by the end of the decade, part of the company’s goal to fully reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050. Those battery-powered aircraft are being developed by Swedish startup Heart Aerospace, from which United placed an order for 100 planes in July 2021. United also invested an undisclosed amount in the company through its venture funding arm at the time of the deal.
The airline has pushed heavily into a variety of lower-emission forms of aviation, not only announcing plans to buy electric air taxis and vertical aircraft, as well as hydrogen-electric engines but also investing in the companies behind the burgeoning technologies.
“We cannot continue doing and operating our business the way we do; it is imperative that we change it, and the way we’re going to change it is through investing in technology,” Mike Leskinen, United Airlines Ventures president, told US media.
“Existing technology is going to either cause us to fly less, which is an unacceptable alternative, or continue with a carbon footprint, which we believe is equally unacceptable,” Leskinen said.
Heart Aerospace, which recently redesigned what will be its first electric aircraft which is now called the ES-30, plans to have the planes enter service in 2028, said Anders Forslund, the company’s CEO and founder.
The 30-passenger planes will be driven by electric motors with battery-derived energy, allowing the planes to have a fully electric range of 200 kilometres (124 miles). The planes will also include a reserve-hybrid engine powered by sustainable aviation fuel, allowing it to have an extended range of up to 400 kilometres with a full flight.
Heart Aerospace, which has also taken purchase orders from Air Canada, Mesa Air Group and Icelandair, has received investments from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and EQT Ventures. Leskinen said those short routes are United’s initial view for how the technology will be utilised, with Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Denver International Airport being viewed as key markets for the first batch of aircraft.
“Initially we want to fly on routes that are 200 miles or less,” he said. “But as that energy density increases, that same aircraft will have a range of 250 miles, 300 miles, which is going to give us a lot more utility here connecting our hubs.”
The aircraft will be able to recharge in less than 30 minutes, Forslund said, potentially reopening regional routes that are underserved by modern jet aircraft.
United could potentially offer those shorter routes not only with greater frequency but at a lower cost, Leskinen said.
“As we adopt electric aircraft, I think the cost for a 30-seat aircraft, 50-seat aircraft as the industry evolves is going to be lower cost than a traditional aircraft,” he said. For small cities, this means they are “going to get either service that they didn’t have before or greater frequency of service,” he added.
Electric jets of the future will ultimately come in all shapes and sizes – the concept in the nearer part of the near future will resemble flying air taxis – drone like, if you will. The bigger picture is that all-electric aviation is the future the aviation sector is betting on. Not only will all-electric aircraft produce zero carbon emissions, but airlines hope they will also reduce operating costs by up to 90%, maintenance costs by up to 50%, and noise by nearly 70%.
But battery density has proven to be an obstacle for range and speed for all-electric aircraft.
Commercial aviation continues to be responsible for about 2-3% of global carbon emissions. The World Wildlife Fund describes aviation as “one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.” It adds that air travel is “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.” But to date, the industry has made most progress on efficiency gains on new aircraft. Today around 85% more efficient than those entering service in the 1960s.
The goal is to have efficient passenger jets airborne, powered by batteries rather than kerosene fuels. But for electric flying, a key challenge in building electric aircraft involves how much energy can be stored in each amount of weight of the on-board energy source. Although the best batteries store about 40 times less energy per unit of weight than jet fuel, a greater share of their energy is available to drive motion.
Jet fuel contains about 14 times more usable energy than a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery. This makes batteries very heavy for aviation — and that’s an issue the sector is still grappling with today. When you combine this with the fact that aviation is always aggressively trying to offload extra weight onboard (whether it’s through the installation of light-weight-slimline seats, fewer onboard bathrooms, the removal of onboard literature, duty free etc) you begin to realise just how much of a challenge this is.
The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
“We cannot continue doing and operating our business the way we do; it is imperative that we change it, and the way we’re going to change it is through investing in technology,” Mike Leskinen, United Airlines Ventures president, told US media.
“Existing technology is going to either cause us to fly less, which is an unacceptable alternative, or continue with a carbon footprint, which we believe is equally unacceptable,” Leskinen said.
Heart Aerospace, which recently redesigned what will be its first electric aircraft which is now called the ES-30, plans to have the planes enter service in 2028, said Anders Forslund, the company’s CEO and founder.
The 30-passenger planes will be driven by electric motors with battery-derived energy, allowing the planes to have a fully electric range of 200 kilometres (124 miles). The planes will also include a reserve-hybrid engine powered by sustainable aviation fuel, allowing it to have an extended range of up to 400 kilometres with a full flight.
Heart Aerospace, which has also taken purchase orders from Air Canada, Mesa Air Group and Icelandair, has received investments from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and EQT Ventures. Leskinen said those short routes are United’s initial view for how the technology will be utilised, with Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Denver International Airport being viewed as key markets for the first batch of aircraft.
“Initially we want to fly on routes that are 200 miles or less,” he said. “But as that energy density increases, that same aircraft will have a range of 250 miles, 300 miles, which is going to give us a lot more utility here connecting our hubs.”
The aircraft will be able to recharge in less than 30 minutes, Forslund said, potentially reopening regional routes that are underserved by modern jet aircraft.
United could potentially offer those shorter routes not only with greater frequency but at a lower cost, Leskinen said.
“As we adopt electric aircraft, I think the cost for a 30-seat aircraft, 50-seat aircraft as the industry evolves is going to be lower cost than a traditional aircraft,” he said. For small cities, this means they are “going to get either service that they didn’t have before or greater frequency of service,” he added.
Electric jets of the future will ultimately come in all shapes and sizes – the concept in the nearer part of the near future will resemble flying air taxis – drone like, if you will. The bigger picture is that all-electric aviation is the future the aviation sector is betting on. Not only will all-electric aircraft produce zero carbon emissions, but airlines hope they will also reduce operating costs by up to 90%, maintenance costs by up to 50%, and noise by nearly 70%.
But battery density has proven to be an obstacle for range and speed for all-electric aircraft.
Commercial aviation continues to be responsible for about 2-3% of global carbon emissions. The World Wildlife Fund describes aviation as “one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.” It adds that air travel is “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.” But to date, the industry has made most progress on efficiency gains on new aircraft. Today around 85% more efficient than those entering service in the 1960s.
The goal is to have efficient passenger jets airborne, powered by batteries rather than kerosene fuels. But for electric flying, a key challenge in building electric aircraft involves how much energy can be stored in each amount of weight of the on-board energy source. Although the best batteries store about 40 times less energy per unit of weight than jet fuel, a greater share of their energy is available to drive motion.
Jet fuel contains about 14 times more usable energy than a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery. This makes batteries very heavy for aviation — and that’s an issue the sector is still grappling with today. When you combine this with the fact that aviation is always aggressively trying to offload extra weight onboard (whether it’s through the installation of light-weight-slimline seats, fewer onboard bathrooms, the removal of onboard literature, duty free etc) you begin to realise just how much of a challenge this is.
The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
