The World’s Largest Electric Aircraft Just Flew
In a Nutshell
Hart Aerospace's ES-19 is the world's largest electric aircraft to fly—a 100-foot wingspan, 36-seat regional airliner that costs $5 to charge and operates at 33-48% better economics than 40-year-old turboprops. The core advantage is replacing complex jet engines with simple electric motors plus a hybrid turboprop backup, enabling 125 miles electric-only or 500 miles hybrid while using existing 5,000 US airports. The company raised capital by showing physical hardware (400 kW motors) rather than slides, built most components in-house for rapid iteration, and targets the massive short-haul market where half of all flights are under 2 hours.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
This is the largest electric airplane ever to fly. It's got a 100 foot wingspan, a takeoff weight of 25,000 lb, and the electricity to get it off the ground cost just $5. Its successor, the ES30, will fly up to 125 mi on battery alone, up to 500 mi as a hybrid, and recharge in about 30 minutes. It's the world's largest electric aircraft by about a factor of two. It's the first clean sheet airliner to be flown in any category, electric or not, in the US in the last 18 years.
This is Andrew Porcel. He's the CEO of Hart Aerospace. Seven years ago, Andrew showed a 3D printed model that could be held in hand. The transition from a toy model to a 100 foot wingspan aircraft occurred through seven years of development.
Andrew Porcel visited Hart Aerospace's headquarters in LA. The team has grown from Anders and co-founder Clara and a 3D printed model to a 40 person team in LA building a real airliner. The mission is to build hybrid electric aircraft to reduce the cost of air travel.
Electric motors have one moving part compared to jet engines with thousands of parts. The motors produce constant torque profile and can spin at one-tenth the speed of jet engines. Electric motors are virtually silent at 100 ft away and have zero wear since they lack combustion or fluids.
The power source consists of eight battery packs laid across the floor of the plane, equivalent to about four Teslas carrying $40 worth of fuel.
Jet engines are complex to build for both 30-seaters and 70-seaters with equal cost and wear regardless of flight distance. This pushes the industry toward larger planes and longer routes. Jet engines are extremely inefficient at taxi, takeoff, and landing. For short flights, 10% of fuel can be spent just taxiing to the runway. Half of all flights in the world are under 2 hours, representing an existing market.
There is a replacement market not driven by cost, as the aircraft being competed with are 40-year-old designs. Regional connectivity focuses on how cheap flights can be rather than distance. The aircraft performs best on shortest possible routes such as island hopping in Hawaii or Norwegian fjord towns where 6-hour drives become 20-minute flights. Operating economics improved from 33% better to 48% better due to oil price increases.
Andrew Porcel grew up next to an air force base in Sweden watching Viggen fighter jets. He was fascinated with paper airplanes, planes, and rockets. He did a PhD on jet engines at MIT. The idea originated 12 years ago when Elon Musk spoke about electric planes at MIT, mentioning 400 watt hours per kilogram as the target.
Andrew worked on jet engines during the day and tinkered with drones at night. He conducted research on electric aircraft funded by the Swedish government, speaking to airlines before starting the company. This established relationships with Nordic airlines before building technology.
At YC, the focus was on getting early interest from airlines, securing LOIs from SAS and three Nordic airlines despite having no technology beyond a 3D printed model. The development progressed from LOIs to building a 400 kW motor the size of a small jet engine, which attracted pre-orders from United Airlines, leading to more capital and plane construction.
The key learning for founders is that every capital raise needs to be based on something material, ideally something physical that can be touched and shown.
United Airlines came through an inbound email to the info address. Clara found it while cleaning spam. The team showed United the electric motor built at jet engine scale, leading to immediate understanding and partnership.
The design looks conventional like the turboprops being replaced rather than futuristic. The philosophy prioritizes conventional appearance while hiding advanced technology under the hood.
The pilot plant in LA builds most of the plane. Components include cylinder bodies for actuators made from 6061 aerospace aluminum. The company develops in-house processes for approximately 15 machine components in actuators. Traditional aerospace would source from suppliers with one-year lead times, but in-house development enables rapid iteration.
The same basic architecture applies to aileron, rudder, landing gear extension, braking, and propeller pitch control. In-house development focuses on components that would otherwise require multiple suppliers, allowing scaling with technologies rather than suppliers.
The entire plant functions as one giant test bench. Components can be tested independently like deconstructing a Picasso painting. The system handles 1.6 megawatts of power for testing fault injection scenarios including programming errors and wire cutting. The design philosophy emphasizes that everything must work even when components fail.
The aircraft accommodates up to 36 passengers, with 30 passengers being most common, providing 6 inches of extra leg room per passenger.
The battery cell lab evaluates cells from Chinese, American, and Korean manufacturers to determine flight cycles, safety, cost, and energy density. Current cells reach 370 Wh/kg, with 400 Wh/kg cells expected within months. This meets targets for the first generation aircraft.
One in every thousand flights in the US gets diverted, requiring 45 minutes of loiter time plus potential 100-mile diversions. Battery electric aircraft must carry two-thirds of battery capacity for reserves since batteries don't get lighter like jet fuel.
The hybrid system uses simple turboprop engines, adding about 20% to upfront aircraft cost. The system enables 125 miles of electric-only flight and 500 miles with hybrid operation. The approach follows SpaceX philosophy of minimizing impact rather than probability when managing risk.
Traditional aerospace minimizes probability of failure due to catastrophic impact, while the alternative approach minimizes impact of being wrong through cheaper, easier iteration. Modern aircraft crashes result from broken logic rather than broken wings. The goal is building software-defined vehicles as computers on wings.
The approach targets the mainline airplane market rather than helicopter or flying car markets. The aircraft carries 36 passengers compared to 3-4 in competing eVTOL designs and operates from existing infrastructure of 5,000 US airports.
Hybrid electric technology operates at negative green premium, replacing 40-year-old aircraft designs. The planes become appreciating assets that improve over 10 years, similar to buying a house.
Future plans include larger narrow-body aircraft like 737 and A320 replacements. Long-term vision includes remote pilots supporting multiple aircraft, with autonomy progressing from cargo to passenger aircraft. Benefits include reduced noise, reduced vibration, cheaper tickets, and increased neighborhood airport utilization.
LA was chosen as the new center of gravity for aviation companies, building on historic aviation significance and the SpaceX ecosystem.
The first flight occurred on Wednesday, August 12th in Plattsburgh, New York, representing seven years of work from YC Demo Day to actual flight.
Andrew Porcel advises starting companies based on genuine interest in solving problems rather than wanting to be a founder. The goal should be achieving lower emissions, lower costs, lower pollution, and better quality of life.
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