Models for years aircraft powered by electric motors that they are the vanguard of a front that is called to make strong progress in the coming years. Now, Swedish company Heart Aerospace has taken a really important step by signing a contract with American Airlines and Mesa Air Group (also American) to sell 200 ES-30 aircraft, for regional flights
And electric planes fly. Currently, the inherent limitations of this propulsion system keep them confined to the suburban area, but they are a good alternative for this type of trip.
Sale of 200 ES-30 models to these airlines (with the option of extending the order up to 100 as specified in the contract) It will save a significant amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
However, there is still a long way to go in electric commercial aviation, as one thing is small airplanes with modest autonomy and another is long-haul flights with high passenger capacity.
In fact, Heart Aerospace, the company supplying the devices, originally planned a 19-seat model with a range of 400 kilometers. According to the dedicated portal forococheselectricos.com, this was a 100% electric model. It has attracted investment from key companies such as United Airlines, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (Bill Gates’s) and Mesa Airlines.
It’s actually a hybrid model.
Now, thanks to this investment round, the company has succeeded in developing a larger 30-passenger aircraft model, the aforementioned ES-30. However, this increase in load forced some ‘tricks’ to achieve the flight power that electric motors alone could not provide. And with this increase in seats, 100% electric autonomy has been reduced to 200 kilometers, half of the first version. The remaining 200 kilometers will be made with aviation fuel.
However, this does not seem to be an obstacle to the promising prospects of the project, because succeeded in attracting new investorsAlongside Air Canada and Sweden’s Saab, it will also purchase aircraft from Heart Aerospace, such as Norway’s Braathens Regional Airlines, Iceland’s Icelandair, Scandinavia’s SAS and New Zealand’s Sounds Air. They will be more ‘hybrid’ aircraft than electric, but still represent a significant advance in sustainability compared to current propulsion systems.
According to the aforementioned portal, first flights won’t start until 2028. Meanwhile, these and other companies continue to work on improving the efficiency of electric aircraft engines. For now, you have to decide between autonomy and load capacity, because the latter is always at the expense of the former.
In parallel with the development of electric aircraft, research in the field of hydrogen propulsion systems, which is considered a real alternative for this industry, is also increasing. That said, there’s nothing to suggest that we’ll continue to see airplanes of a certain size running on hydrogen throughout this decade.
Heart Aerospace website: http://heartaerospace.com/
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Environment department contact address:crisclimatica@prensaiberica.es
Source: Informacion
Anika Rood is an author at “Social Bites”. She is an automobile enthusiast who writes about the latest developments and news in the automobile industry. With a deep understanding of the latest technologies and a passion for writing, Anika provides insightful and engaging articles that keep her readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the world of automobiles.