The World’s Largest Electric Aircraft Just Flew

Y Combinator

AI-assisted summary of The World’s Largest Electric Aircraft Just Flew — original source. Check the original for full context.

Source published: 2026-09-01

Key ideas

Heart Aerospace conducted the maiden flight of the world’s largest electric aircraft in Plattsburgh, New York, featuring a 100-foot wingspan, a 25,000-pound takeoff weight, and an energy cost of just $5 to get airborne. (0:01)
The achievement represents the first clean-sheet commercial airliner flown in the United States in 18 years, advancing from a 3D-printed Y Combinator pitch model to full-scale flight in seven years. (0:01)
To satisfy FAA diversion and 45-minute loiter reserve rules without forfeiting two-thirds of the battery pack to dead weight, Heart implemented a hybrid turboprop backup that adds 20% to upfront aircraft cost while enabling up to 500 miles of range. (9:20)
Targeting the 50% of global airline flights under two hours, Heart projects operating cost savings of up to 48% over legacy turboprops, with battery modularity allowing the aircraft to appreciate in performance as cell energy densities improve. (2:45)

Detailed notes

## Background Published on YouTube by Y Combinator on September 1, 2026, this episode of Hard Tech follows YC partner Gustaf Alströmer as he visits Heart Aerospace's pilot plant in Los Angeles. The video features an in-depth conversation with co-founder and CEO Anders Forslund about developing and flying the world's largest electric aircraft, transitioning from a tiny 3D-printed model to full-scale flight, and the potential of low-cost electric propulsion to revitalize regional air travel.

## TL;DR Heart Aerospace successfully conducted the maiden flight of the world's largest electric aircraft—a demonstrator with a 100-foot wingspan and 25,000-pound takeoff weight that costs only about $5 of electricity to get off the ground. CEO Anders Forslund details how the mechanical simplicity of electric powertrains radically undercuts the operating costs of traditional jet turbines, enabling viable short-haul regional flights across underutilized local airports. To overcome mandatory FAA loiter and diversion reserve penalties without carrying excessive battery dead weight, Heart developed a hybrid architecture combining pure electric flight with a small turboprop reserve engine. Inside their vertically integrated Los Angeles pilot facility, the team leverages an integrated 'iron bird' test bench and in-house component machining to iteratively develop their airliner before scaling toward the massive commercial narrowbody market.

## Atmosphere & style The episode radiates a grounded, pragmatic hard-tech optimism, trading futuristic corporate hype for candid engineering trade-offs and hands-on workshop grit. Alströmer and Forslund share an easy, collegial rapport informed by their shared history dating back to Heart's early YC batch, giving the facility tour the intimate feel of two builders reflecting on an audacious bet that paid off. The narrative builds to a quietly emotional climax when Forslund recalls the goosebump-inducing moment the aircraft finally took off down the Plattsburgh runway, validating years of grueling hardware development with tangible flight.

## Bulletin - [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=1s) Heart Aerospace conducted the maiden flight of the world’s largest electric aircraft in Plattsburgh, New York, featuring a 100-foot wingspan, a 25,000-pound takeoff weight, and an energy cost of just $5 to get airborne. - [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=1s) The achievement represents the first clean-sheet commercial airliner flown in the United States in 18 years, advancing from a 3D-printed Y Combinator pitch model to full-scale flight in seven years. - [09:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=560s) To satisfy FAA diversion and 45-minute loiter reserve rules without forfeiting two-thirds of the battery pack to dead weight, Heart implemented a hybrid turboprop backup that adds 20% to upfront aircraft cost while enabling up to 500 miles of range. - [02:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=165s) Targeting the 50% of global airline flights under two hours, Heart projects operating cost savings of up to 48% over legacy turboprops, with battery modularity allowing the aircraft to appreciate in performance as cell energy densities improve.

## Key takeaways - [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=1s) Heart Aerospace's prototype is the largest electric airplane ever flown—doubling previous scale records—and the first clean-sheet airliner flown in the US in 18 years. - [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=1s) The planned commercial ES-30 is designed for a 125-mile pure-electric range, a 500-mile hybrid range, and a rapid 30-minute recharge turnaround. - [01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=74s) Electric aircraft propulsion replaces thousands of high-heat, high-wear jet turbine parts with a single moving part rotor, dramatically reducing mechanical wear and maintenance costs. - [01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=74s) Constant electric motor torque enables near-silent ground taxiing at one-tenth operational RPM, eliminating the massive fuel burn seen in jet engines, which consume up to 10% of their trip fuel while idling. - [02:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=165s) Jet turbine economics undermined regional aviation because manufacturing and maintenance expenses are identical regardless of whether an engine powers a short regional hop or a long-distance flight. - [02:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=165s) Driven by rising fuel prices, Heart's operating cost advantage over incumbent 40-year-old regional turboprops has widened from 33% to 48% cheaper. - [04:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=243s) Heart adopted an iterative hardware development model where every funding round was validated with physical artifacts, progressing from a small 3D-printed model to a functional 400 kW motor. - [04:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=243s) United Airlines' initial partnership emerged from an inbound inquiry found in Heart's general spam filter, which converted after executives inspected the working 400 kW test motor. - [06:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=386s) Heart vertically integrated precision actuator manufacturing using in-house machined 6061 aluminum, avoiding 12-month aerospace vendor lead times across eight distinct airframe systems. - [07:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=465s) The pilot plant functions as a 1.6-megawatt 'iron bird' test bench designed for automated fault injection to ensure flight computers and actuators survive severe electrical disruptions. - [09:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=560s) FAA commercial flight reserve rules requiring 45 minutes of loiter and a 100-mile diversion penalty would force a pure-electric plane to carry two-thirds of its battery capacity as reserve dead weight. - [10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) Heart treats its aircraft as a software-defined computer on wings, adopting SpaceX-style risk minimization during testing and noting that modern aircraft fail due to broken logic rather than structural fractures. - [10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) By relying on conventional runway airframes, Heart leverages more than 5,000 existing underutilized US public airports instead of depending on speculative vertiport infrastructure required by eVTOLs. - [10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) Unlike depreciating fossil-fuel aircraft, electric airframes function as appreciating assets that increase in capability over their multi-decade lifespans as battery cell density improves. - [11:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=703s) Heart ultimately plans to challenge incumbent narrowbody airliners like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, anticipating a phased evolution toward remote ground pilots overseeing multiple aircraft.

## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=1s) The World's Largest Electric Aircraft Takes Flight

The aircraft featured is the largest electric airplane ever to take flight, boasting a 100-foot wingspan, a gross takeoff weight of 25,000 pounds, and an energy cost of just $5 of electricity to get airborne. Its planned commercial successor, the ES-30, is engineered to fly up to 125 miles entirely on battery power, push out to 500 miles in a hybrid configuration, and recharge in roughly 30 minutes.

Heart Aerospace CEO and co-founder Anders Forslund highlights that the aircraft surpasses the previous record for an electric plane by a factor of two. Furthermore, it marks the first clean-sheet airliner in any commercial category—electric or conventional—flown in the United States in the past 18 years. Y Combinator partner Gustaf Alströmer reflects on how surreal the timeline feels: just seven years earlier, during YC's W19 batch, Forslund had pitched the concept holding a toy-sized 3D-printed model in his hand. Now, that concept has materialized into an aircraft with a 100-foot wingspan hurtling down the runway during taxi tests.

- **Current Prototype Specs**: 100 ft wingspan, 25,000 lb takeoff weight, ~$5 electricity cost for takeoff. - **ES-30 Target Specs**: 125 mi all-electric range, 500 mi hybrid range, ~30-minute recharge turnaround. - **Historical Benchmark**: First clean-sheet airliner flown in the US in 18 years.

---

[01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=74s) The Mechanical Simplicity of Electric Propulsion

Visiting Heart Aerospace’s pilot plant and headquarters in Los Angeles, Alströmer notes that the company has scaled from just Forslund and his co-founder Klara to a focused 40-person team taking on challenges that legacy aerospace giants like Boeing and Airbus have failed to solve. When asked to summarize Heart Aerospace in two sentences, Forslund explains: "We build hybrid electric aircraft, but our mission is to reduce the cost of air travel, and we're building the technology to support that."

At the core of this strategy is replacing the internal combustion jet turbine with high-power electric motors. Traditional jet engines are notoriously complex assemblies of thousands of precision parts operating under extreme thermal stress hot enough to melt metal, demanding intense maintenance. By contrast, an electric motor fundamentally relies on a single moving part. Scaling from a tiny, multi-gram drone motor up to a 400 kW aircraft motor introduces no fundamental architectural complexity—it avoids high heat, fluid lines, and combustion, delivering virtually zero mechanical wear.

On the ground, this simplicity transforms airport operations: while a jet engine taxiing burns copious fuel and produces deafening noise by definition, an electric motor maintains a constant torque profile. It can spin the propeller at one-tenth of normal operational speed, making ground taxiing practically silent from 100 feet away. The entire propulsion system for the current demonstrator is powered by eight battery packs arranged along the floor of the fuselage—totaling the battery capacity of only about four Tesla passenger vehicles, carrying roughly $40 worth of equivalent energy.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Jet Engine vs Electric Motor Architecture accDescr: A comparison showing the contrast between complex jet turbine mechanics and simple electric motor architecture.

subgraph JET["Jet Turbine Engine"] J1["Thousands of Moving Parts"] --> J2["Extreme Combustion Heat"] J2 --> J3["High Mechanical Wear & Noise"] J3 --> J4["Massive Maintenance Overhead"] end

subgraph ELEC["Heart Electric Powertrain"] E1["Single Moving Part Rotor"] --> E2["No Combustion / No Fluids"] E2 --> E3["Constant Torque & Low RPM Taxi"] E3 --> E4["Near-Zero Wear & Silent Operation"] end ```

---

[02:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=165s) Why the Jet Engine Broke Regional Aviation

Forslund explains that the economics of jet turbines inherently broke the short-haul market. It costs roughly the same amount to build and maintain a turbine engine for a 30-passenger plane as it does for a 70-passenger airliner, and engine wear accumulates identically whether the plane flies 100 miles or 1,000 miles. Because of this dynamic, engine economics systematically pushed the commercial aviation industry away from regional networks toward ever-larger airframes flying longer routes.

Jets are also profoundly inefficient during the early phases of short flights; on a brief regional hop, an aircraft can burn up to 10% of its entire fuel load merely idling and taxiing to the runway, with takeoff and initial climb suffering similarly low fuel efficiency. Yet the underlying demand remains massive: 50% of all airline flights worldwide are under two hours. The regional fleet servicing these short routes consists largely of aging 40-year-old turboprop designs in desperate need of replacement.

For regional travel, economic value is driven not by maximum range, but by ultra-low trip costs. Electric aircraft shine brightest on the shortest possible routes—turning a grueling 6-hour road trip around a Norwegian fjord into a 20-minute jump, or connecting the Hawaiian islands. Furthermore, as oil prices have escalated over recent years, Heart's operating cost advantage over incumbent turboprops jumped from 33% cheaper to 48% cheaper purely due to fuel cost divergence.

---

[04:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=243s) From Childhood Fighter Jets to MIT and the YC Breakthrough

Forslund’s passion for aviation began in childhood, growing up near an air force base in Sweden watching Saab 37 Viggen fighter jets roar directly over his local soccer field. He pursued an engineering PhD focused on jet engine mechanics and eventually landed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Twelve years ago at MIT, an appearance by Elon Musk sparked Forslund's path forward. Musk stated that every form of transportation would inevitably transition to electric powertrains except for space rockets, citing battery energy density targets around 400 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). Forslund took this as an explicit call to arms. He spent his days researching jet turbines and his evenings tinkering with drone components at his kitchen table. Later, backed by Swedish government research funding, he traveled across Scandinavia interviewing commercial airlines about electric aviation before Heart even existed as a legal entity, establishing crucial relationships with regional carriers like SAS and Braathens.

```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Heart Aerospace Founding and Traction Flow accDescr: Shows the progression from university research to airline pre-orders and prototype construction.

subgraph Phase1["Research & Idea"] A["MIT Talk by Elon Musk (400 Wh/kg Call to Arms)"] --> B["Swedish Govt Study (Nordic Airline Network)"] end

subgraph Phase2["Validation"] B --> C["YC W19 with 3D Model (LOIs: SAS & Braathens)"] C --> D["Bench Motor Built (400 kW Proof-of-Concept)"] end

subgraph Phase3["Scaling"] D --> E["Inbound Spam Email (United Airlines Deal)"] E --> F["Full-Scale Prototype (LA Pilot Plant)"] end ```

When Forslund joined Y Combinator, there was no established playbook for building an electric airliner startup. Armed with Letters of Intent (LOIs) from Nordic airlines and his small 3D-printed model on Demo Day, Heart followed an iterative hardware funding philosophy: every round of capital had to be justified by delivering a tangible, physical artifact. After the model, they built a functional 400 kW electric motor matching the size of a regional jet turbine.

That physical proof delivered commercial credibility. Heart's breakthrough deal with United Airlines originated when an inbound note arrived in their generic public `info@` email address. Co-founder Klara pulled it out of the spam filter, thinking, *"I think this might be a thing."* Heart invited United’s leadership to see the operating 400 kW motor in person, and the airline instantly grasped the potential, converting their interest into substantial commercial backing.

> "If you're a founder listening to this, the learning that you should have is every time you need more capital, it needs to be something material. Ideally something physical you can touch, that you can show that you made."

---

[06:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=386s) Inside the Pilot Plant: Pragmatic Design and In-House Actuation

Unlike other electric aviation startups that adopt aggressive, futuristic aesthetics, Heart intentionally designed their aircraft to look like a standard regional turboprop. Forslund emphasizes that they are not trying to design an exotic sports car, preferring a conventional airframe that conceals its transformative electric power under the hood like a "Superman cape."

Touring the Los Angeles pilot manufacturing plant, the engineering team showcases an iterative approach to hardware development. They examine an early structural prototype that was abandoned without physical testing once calculations showed it would fail stress loads, contrasting it with a reinforced, fully integrated version that extends completely through the bottom frame.

A key manufacturing philosophy at the facility is vertical integration around core mechanical components. Rather than relying on traditional aerospace sub-suppliers—where ordering a single actuator often takes an entire year—Heart machines components like actuator cylinder bodies in-house out of 6061 aerospace-grade aluminum. A typical actuator assembly incorporates roughly 15 precision-machined parts. Developing this in-house yields an adaptable core mechanical architecture applied across multiple flight systems: - Aileron actuation - Rudder control - Landing gear extension and retraction - Wheel braking systems - Propeller pitch management

Forslund explains the strategic logic: startups should bring hardware in-house when the component design can scale across eight distinct internal aircraft systems rather than dealing with eight separate external vendors.

---

[07:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=465s) Systems Architecture, Cockpit Design, and the Battery Cell Lab

The entire pilot plant floor is wired as an integrated "iron bird" test bench, resembling a deconstructed Picasso painting where the flight deck, passenger cabin, and empennage (tail) are laid out across the facility. The complete rig runs on up to 1.6 megawatts of power to simulate full airborne electrical loads. This layout allows engineers to conduct extensive automated fault injection testing—systematically cutting physical wires or injecting software errors to prove that safety-critical flight computers and actuators remain fully operable under catastrophic failure conditions.

Inside the flight deck, Heart mirrors modern electric vehicle architecture. Designed by an engineer who previously worked on the SpaceX Dragon space capsule, the cockpit eschews dense walls of legacy dials and switches in favor of streamlined multifunction digital displays reminiscent of a Tesla Model 3. In the passenger cabin, the layout can accommodate up to 36 passengers, but the baseline commercial configuration is planned for 30 passengers, giving travelers an estimated six inches of additional legroom over standard airline seating.

The walkthrough finishes in Heart’s dedicated battery lab, where engineers benchmark commercial cells from American, Korean, and Chinese suppliers across safety, cycle life, thermal behavior, cost, and energy density. Revisiting the 400 Wh/kg threshold Elon Musk referenced over a decade ago, the team notes that their highest-density evaluation cells on test benches currently reach approximately 370 Wh/kg, with commercial supplier cells achieving the 400 Wh/kg milestone expected in the lab within months.

[09:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=560s) The Reserve Dilemma and the Hybrid Engine Solution

A 23-day countdown timer on the wall, tracked via a Chrome extension inspired by the Y Combinator Demo Day countdown, marks the days remaining until flight testing. Yet despite the massive engineering hurdles in power electronics, Anders Forslund reveals that the hardest problem Heart Aerospace faced had nothing to do with electric motors or batteries. The core challenge stems from aviation reserve regulations: in the United States, approximately one in every 1,000 commercial flights is diverted to an alternate airport. Federal aviation rules require every commercial flight to hold 45 minutes of loiter fuel and retain enough energy to fly to an alternate destination that could be up to 100 miles away.

For a pure battery-electric aircraft, this requirement creates a brutal weight penalty. Unlike traditional kerosene-fueled airliners that burn off weight as they cruise, batteries remain exactly as heavy on landing as they were at takeoff. Complying with commercial reserve mandates meant that two-thirds of the onboard battery pack had to be reserved purely for emergency diversions and holding patterns, severely crippling commercial payload and range. Heart’s answer was to incorporate a hybrid backup system powered by a simple, cost-effective turboprop engine. While adding the turboprop increases the upfront aircraft cost by roughly 20%, it completely frees the battery system to handle standard regional missions without carrying dead-weight battery reserves.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Hybrid Electric Flight Reserve Architecture accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how Heart Aerospace divides baseline electric flight from regulatory diversion reserves using a turboprop.

subgraph Primary["Standard Flight Mission (Battery Electric)"] Takeoff["Electric Takeoff & Climb"] Cruise["All-Electric Cruise (Up to 225 Miles)"] Landing["Electric Landing at Destination"] Takeoff --> Cruise --> Landing end

subgraph Reserve["Mandatory FAA Reserve Requirements"] Loiter["45-Minute Holding Loiter"] Divert["Divert to Alternate Airport (Up to 100 Miles)"] Loiter --> Divert end

Cruise -.->|"Diversion / Emergency"| Reserve Turboprop["Small Turboprop Engine (Hybrid System)"] -->|"Supplies Energy (Up to 500 Miles Range)"| Reserve ```

- **FAA Reserve Reality**: Aircraft must carry enough energy for their trip, 45 minutes of loiter time, and flight to a diversion airport up to 100 miles away. - **Battery Penalty**: In a purely battery-powered plane, roughly two-thirds of the total battery capacity is held strictly for regulatory reserves. - **Operating Profiles**: The aircraft delivers up to 225 miles of all-electric range on battery power alone, extending up to a 500-mile operational range when utilizing the hybrid system. - **Cost Tradeoff**: The hybrid turboprop engine adds roughly 20% to the upfront purchase price of the aircraft, which Anders considers well worth the immense operational flexibility.

---

[10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) Risk Management, Software Logic, and Market Strategy

Heart’s approach to aircraft design stems directly from a risk-management philosophy Anders borrowed from SpaceX. Traditional aerospace operates on the assumption that any system failure will inevitably be catastrophic, leading incumbents to design excessively slow, risk-averse engineering cycles where "we don't know anything until we know everything." Heart instead focuses on minimizing the *impact* of failure during the design and testing phases. By isolating critical systems and lowering the downside of test failures, the engineering team can iterate rapidly and inexpensively. As Anders emphasizes, modern aircraft rarely crash from structural hardware failures like broken wings; instead, "they crash because of broken logic." Heart is treating the plane fundamentally as a software-defined vehicle—a high-reliability computer on wings.

When addressing why Heart avoided the hype around urban air mobility (eVTOL flying taxis) or hydrogen propulsion, Anders highlights commercial pragmatism. While flying taxis pursue helicopter-like urban hops with three or four passengers, Heart is going directly after the mainline regional airliner market with a 36-passenger design that takes advantage of existing infrastructure. The United States already possesses over 5,000 public airports, many of which are underutilized. Furthermore, alternative powertrains like hydrogen face massive infrastructure buildouts and cost premiums, whereas hybrid-electric aviation operates today with a significant "negative green premium." Because the fleet being targeted for replacement consists of 40-year-old regional turboprops, an electric aircraft actually becomes an appreciating asset: as battery chemistry improves over its operational lifetime, swapping in newer cells means the plane will perform better ten years down the road than on the day it was bought, much like owning a home.

- **Failure Philosophy**: Prioritize minimizing the impact of errors rather than paralyzing progress trying to bring failure probability to absolute zero. - **Infrastructure Leverage**: Bypasses the need for new vertiports by flying from the 5,000 existing airports throughout the US. - **Scale Advantage**: Targets 36 passenger seats rather than the 3–4 passenger payloads typical of eVTOL concepts. - **Appreciating Asset Model**: Upgrading battery packs over the decades-long lifespan of the airframe makes the aircraft more capable over time rather than obsolete.

---

[11:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=703s) Narrowbody Ambitions, Autonomous Flight, and the LA Aerospace Hub

A 36-seat regional airliner is only the opening chapter for Heart Aerospace. Anders notes that the ultimate prize in commercial aviation is the massive narrowbody market dominated by the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families, where airline backlogs stretch for years. With legacy manufacturers bogged down by production backlogs and iterative updates, bringing the rapid-iteration, vertically integrated model that SpaceX proved in rocketry to passenger airplanes is a clear historical imperative.

Looking ahead, Anders envisions operational changes to cockpit staffing to solve regional pilot shortages. Rather than leaping directly into full autonomy, the transition will mirror autonomous driving: a remote pilot on the ground will oversee multiple aircraft simultaneously, acting like remote operators monitor fleets of Waymo autonomous vehicles. Autonomous flight will likely prove itself first in cargo operations, where safety stakes are lower, before graduating into scheduled passenger aviation. For passengers, electric regional travel promises drastically reduced cabin noise, virtually no vibration, cheaper ticket prices, and the revival of convenient short-haul routes from neighborhood airports that haven't been viable since the golden age of regional air travel. Heart chose to base its pilot plant in Los Angeles to make this happen, tapping into the historic center of American aviation and the dense talent pool cultivated by SpaceX and the Southern California new-space ecosystem.

- **Market Horizon**: Ambition to tackle narrowbody airliners (competing in the 737/A320 category) where incumbent delivery backlogs are severe. - **Pilot Architecture**: A phased shift starting with remote pilots overseeing multiple aircraft simultaneously, moving through uncrewed cargo flights, and eventually entering passenger travel. - **Passenger Comfort**: Electric propulsors generate significantly less noise and vibration than gas turbines. - **Location Choice**: Los Angeles was chosen because "companies don't build planes, people do," capitalizing on Southern California's dense aerospace engineering talent.

---

[13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=791s) Maiden Flight in Plattsburgh and Advice for Hardware Founders

Seven years of prototyping, risk-taking, and engineering culminated on Wednesday, August 12th, when Heart Aerospace conducted the first flight of the world's largest electric airplane in Plattsburgh, New York. Anders reflects on the emotional weight of watching the aircraft taxi down the runway and rotate into the air—a milestone he had envisioned continuously since the company's beginnings at Y Combinator Demo Day. He describes the visceral feeling of getting goosebumps seeing the physical machine take flight, finally stepping back to "see the forest for all the trees."

Gustaf asks Anders how an ambitious founder should get started if they were launching a hard-tech hardware startup today with all the knowledge he now possesses. Anders answers with an analogy about his own leadership style: "I'm a pretty good duck... I know a little bit how to swim, I know a little bit how to fly, and I know a little bit how to walk, and that's enough for me to know when I find somebody that's great." He emphasizes that no one should found a company simply to have the title of founder or run a business. The only reason to endure the grueling reality of building hard tech is a genuine, obsessive love for solving the underlying problem: "If we can get stuff that is lower emission, lower cost, lower pollution, just better quality of life, we should be doing it."

- **First Flight Date & Location**: Flown on Wednesday, August 12th, in Plattsburgh, New York. - **Scale Milestone**: Recognized as the largest electric airplane ever flown. - **Timeline**: 7 years from company inception at Y Combinator (W19) to full-scale maiden flight. - **Founder Advice**: Build broad, versatile generalist knowledge ("duck" skills) to recognize and recruit exceptional specialists, and never found a hardware company for status—only for the love of tackling a vital problem.

## Notable quotes > [01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=74s) We build hybrid electric aircraft, but our mission is to reduce the cost of air travel, and we're building the technology to support that. — Anders Forslund

> [04:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=243s) I think this might be a thing. — Klara Forslund

> [04:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=243s) If you're a founder listening to this, the learning that you should have is every time you need more capital, it needs to be something material. Ideally something physical you can touch, that you can show that you made. — Anders Forslund

> [10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) we don't know anything until we know everything. — Anders Forslund

> [10:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=623s) they crash because of broken logic. — Anders Forslund

> [11:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=703s) companies don't build planes, people do — Anders Forslund

> [13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=791s) see the forest for all the trees. — Anders Forslund

> [13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=791s) I'm a pretty good duck... I know a little bit how to swim, I know a little bit how to fly, and I know a little bit how to walk, and that's enough for me to know when I find somebody that's great. — Anders Forslund

> [13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM&t=791s) If we can get stuff that is lower emission, lower cost, lower pollution, just better quality of life, we should be doing it. — Anders Forslund

## Mentioned Heart Aerospace, Y Combinator, Gustaf Alströmer, Anders Forslund, Klara Forslund, ES-30, Boeing, Airbus, Tesla, Saab 37 Viggen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Elon Musk, SAS, Braathens, United Airlines, SpaceX, SpaceX Dragon, Waymo, Plattsburgh, New York

## Video description Heart Aerospace (YC W19) just flew the largest electric airplane ever flown — a 100-foot wingspan, a takeoff weight of 25,000 pounds, and $5 of electricity to get it off the ground.

In this episode of Hard Tech, YC's Gustaf Alströmer visits Heart's pilot plant in LA and sits down with co-founder and CEO Anders Forslund to find out how they went from a 3D-printed model to a full-scale electric aircraft in seven years, why the jet engine has left short flights behind, and what cheap electric flight could unlock for the future of regional air travel.

https://www.heartaerospace.com

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM86DBOqgPM)

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全球最大电动飞机完成首飞 Heart Aerospace 成功完成了全球最大电动飞机的首飞。这架验证机翼展100英尺，起飞重量为25,000磅，离地起飞的电费仅需约5美元。CEO Anders Forslund 详细阐述了电驱动系统在机械结构上的简明性如何大幅降低传统喷气涡轮发动机的运营成本，从而使利用率不足的支线机场之间开展可行的短途飞行成为可能。为了在避免携带过多电池死重的同时满足 FAA 强制的盘旋与备降储备要求，Heart 开发了一种纯电飞行与小型涡桨备用发动机相结合的混合动力架构。在其位于洛杉矶的垂直整合试验工厂内，团队借助集成“铁鸟”试验台和内部零部件加工技术对客机进行迭代研发，为未来进军庞大的商用窄体机市场奠定基础。 Heart Aerospace 在纽约州普拉茨堡完成了全球最大电动飞机的首飞，该机翼展100英尺，起飞重量25,000磅，离地升空的能耗成本仅为5美元。 (0:01) 这一成果代表了美国18年来首款全新研制并升空的商用客机，历时七年从 Y Combinator 路演时的3D打印模型发展到全尺寸试飞。 (0:01) 为满足 FAA 备降及45分钟盘旋储备要求，同时避免三分之二的电池组变成无效死重，Heart 采用了混合动力涡桨备用系统，该方案使飞机前期购置成本增加20%，但航程可达500英里。 (9:20) 瞄准全球50%航程在两小时以内的民航航班，Heart 预计其运营成本较传统涡桨客机最高可降低48%，且电池模块化设计允许飞机性能随着电芯能量密度的提升而持续升级。 (2:45)

Reading summary

Heart Aerospace argues that electric propulsion can revive regional aviation by eliminating the mechanical complexity and prohibitive operating costs of jet turbines on short routes. According to co-founder and CEO Anders Forslund, deploying a pragmatic, software-defined airframe with hybrid reserves offers an immediate economic alternative to aging regional turboprops while establishing a path toward narrowbody commercial flight. Restoring Short-Haul Economics Through Electric Simplicity (2:45) Commercial aviation economics have historically disincentivized short-haul routes because jet turbines cost roughly the same to build and maintain whether powering a 30-passenger or 70-passenger plane, while mechanical wear accumulates identically over 100 miles or 1,000 miles. Jet engines are particularly inefficient during regional operations, often burning up to 10% of their total trip fuel while idling and taxiing. Although 50% of global flights are under two hours, regional travel remains reliant on 40-year-old turboprops. Forslund notes that rising fuel prices have widened Heart's operating cost advantage over conventional turboprops from 33% to 48%. Electric propulsion resolves these structural inefficiencies through mechanical simplicity. Unlike jet turbines that contain thousands of components operating under extreme thermal stress, electric motors rely on a single moving rotor with no combustion or fluid lines, resulting in minimal mechanical wear. Ground operations are similarly altered: electric motors maintain constant torque at one-tenth of normal propeller operational speed, making taxiing practically silent from 100 feet away. Heart's full-scale demonstrator powers its propulsion with eight battery packs totaling the capacity of roughly four Tesla vehicles, incurring an energy cost of approximately $5 of electricity for takeoff. Solving Regulatory Reserve Penalties with Hybrid Architecture (9:20) The primary operational barrier for commercial electric aircraft stems from regulatory safety mandates rather than motor mechanics. Federal aviation rules require commercial airliners to carry 45 minutes of loiter fuel alongside sufficient energy to divert up to 100 miles to an alternate airport—a scenario occurring in roughly one out of every 1,000 US flights. Because batteries do not burn off weight during flight like kerosene, meeting these diversion reserves entirely on battery power would lock up two-thirds of the onboard battery pack as dead weight, severely limiting payload and commercial range. To overcome this weight penalty, Heart integrated a cost-effective turboprop engine as a hybrid reserve system. While the turboprop adds approximately 20% to the upfront purchase price of the aircraft, it fulfills mandatory loiter and diversion requirements. This architecture frees the primary battery system to service standard operational routes of up to 125 to 225 miles on pure electric power, while extending total flight range to 500 miles when utilizing the hybrid configuration. Vertical Integration and Software-Defined Testing (6:26) Heart pursued an iterative hardware methodology modeled on SpaceX, requiring every capital round to produce a physical artifact—progressing from a hand-held 3D model to a 400 kW test motor that ultimately secured commercial backing from United Airlines. To bypass aerospace supplier lead times that often reach a year for single components, Heart vertically integrated key mechanical manufacturing. Machining 6061 aerospace-grade aluminum actuators in-house produced a modular core assembly of 15 precision parts that scales across eight flight systems, including ailerons, rudders, landing gear, and propeller pitch control. At its Los Angeles pilot facility, Heart validated this hardware using an "iron bird" test bench powered by up to 1.6 megawatts to simulate full airborne electrical loads. The deconstructed test frame allows engineers to execute automated fault-injection testing by severing physical lines or injecting software errors under load. Forslund contends that modern aircraft failures stem from flawed logic rather than structural airframe fractures, prompting Heart to treat the aircraft as a software-defined vehicle engineered to isolate failures during iterative development. Commercial Strategy and Expanding Operational Horizons (10:23) Heart avoided urban air mobility (eVTOL) and hydrogen powertrains to focus on standard regional infrastructure, designing a 30- to 36-passenger conventional airframe compatible with 5,000 existing public US airports. Forslund asserts that electric aircraft operate as appreciating assets: because airframes remain in service for decades, commercial operators can upgrade battery packs as commercial cell energy densities improve (with test bench evaluations currently at 370 Wh/kg and targeting 400 Wh/kg), improving aircraft range and payload over time without altering the base airframe. Heart views the regional market as a foundation to eventually enter the narrowbody airliner sector dominated by Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 backlogs. To mitigate regional pilot shortages, Forslund envisions an operational evolution similar to autonomous driving: flight operations will likely transition through uncrewed cargo flights before introducing passenger models where ground-based remote operators oversee multiple airborne aircraft simultaneously. Heart Aerospace demonstrated its full-scale concept with a successful maiden flight of its 100-foot wingspan, 25,000-pound demonstrator in Plattsburgh, New York, on August 12th. However, achieving commercial airline adoption will depend on certifying safety-critical flight software, reaching the commercial 400 Wh/kg battery milestone, and scaling production of the 30-passenger ES-30 hybrid aircraft.

Source quotes

[1:14] Anders Forslund: We build hybrid electric aircraft, but our mission is to reduce the cost of air travel, and we're building the technology to support that. [4:03] Klara Forslund: I think this might be a thing. [4:03] Anders Forslund: If you're a founder listening to this, the learning that you should have is every time you need more capital, it needs to be something material. Ideally something physical you can touch, that you can show that you made. [10:23] Anders Forslund: we don't know anything until we know everything. [10:23] Anders Forslund: they crash because of broken logic. [11:43] Anders Forslund: companies don't build planes, people do [13:11] Anders Forslund: see the forest for all the trees. [13:11] Anders Forslund: I'm a pretty good duck... I know a little bit how to swim, I know a little bit how to fly, and I know a little bit how to walk, and that's enough for me to know when I find somebody that's great. [13:11] Anders Forslund: If we can get stuff that is lower emission, lower cost, lower pollution, just better quality of life, we should be doing it.

Original transcript

[0:01] This is the largest electric airplane [0:02] ever to fly. It's got a 100-ft wingspan, [0:05] a takeoff weight of 25,000 lb, and the [0:07] electricity to get it off the ground [0:09] cost just $5. Its successor, the ES-30, [0:12] will fly up to 125 mi on battery alone, [0:16] up to 500 mi as a hybrid, and recharge [0:19] in about 30 minutes. [0:20] >> It's the world's largest electric [0:22] aircraft by about a factor two. It's the [0:24] first clean sheet airliner to be flown [0:27] in any category, electric or not, uh in [0:30] the US [0:31] in in the last 18 years. [0:35] >> This is Anders Forslund. He's the CEO of [0:38] Heart Aerospace. Seven years ago, Anders [0:40] showed me this plane. It was a [0:42] 3D-printed model you can hold in your [0:44] hand. [0:46] >> It's surreal, yeah. I came to YC with [0:47] that 3D-printed plane, [0:50] uh that was like this this size, and now [0:52] it's, you know, 100-ft wingspan hurtling [0:55] down the runway during taxi testing. [0:57] >> So, how do you go from basically a toy [0:59] model to this? I visited Heart [1:01] Aerospace's headquarters in LA to find [1:03] out. [1:14] I've worked with Anders since he came [1:16] through YC seven years ago. Back then, [1:18] it was Anders and his co-founder Klara [1:20] and that 3D-printed model. Today, it's a [1:22] 40-person team in LA building a real [1:25] airliner. [1:27] How would you just describe Heart [1:28] Aerospace in two sentences? [1:30] >> We build hybrid electric aircraft, but [1:31] our mission is to reduce the cost of air [1:33] travel, and we're building the [1:34] technology to support that. [1:35] >> With a relatively small team, they're [1:37] going after something that Boeing and [1:38] Airbus have not been able to pull off. [1:40] Heart's plane swapped the jet engine for [1:43] electric motors. [1:45] >> You'd be holding a motor that weighed a [1:47] few grams that you put on a on a drone [1:49] and it has one moving part, and then you [1:51] look at the 400 kW ones, it's just like [1:52] scaled up. [1:54] So, it's this really, really simple [1:55] thing that has very few moving parts, so [1:58] it means that you can produce them a lot [2:00] cheaper. They don't break because they [2:02] don't really have combustion or fluids, [2:05] so you get basically zero wear. [2:07] >> Let's break that down. A jet engine has [2:09] thousands of parts and burns fuel hot [2:11] enough to melt metal. An electric motor [2:14] has essentially only one moving part, no [2:16] combustion, and doesn't really wear out. [2:19] >> When you're taxiing with a jet engine, [2:20] the rest of it is [2:22] by definition it's noise. And this but [2:24] you have constant torque profile, so you [2:26] could spin it at like, you know, 1/10 of [2:27] the speed is virtually silent if you [2:29] stand like 100 ft away from it. [2:32] >> And the power source is eight battery [2:34] packs laid across the floor of the [2:35] plane. [2:36] >> It's eight packs that are like across [2:39] the floor of the fuselage. [2:40] It's actually only about four Teslas for [2:42] this one. Carrying you that $40 worth of [2:44] fuel. [2:45] >> To understand why this is such a big [2:47] deal, let's look at what's broken about [2:49] the jet engine, especially when it comes [2:51] to short flights. [2:52] >> It's as complex to build a jet engine [2:54] for a 30-seater as it is for a [2:55] 70-seater, so it costs the same. It [2:58] wears the same whether you fly 100 mi or [3:01] 1,000 mi. [music] [3:02] >> Mhm. [3:03] >> So it's pushing the industry into this [3:06] direction of going larger and larger [3:08] planes and longer and longer routes. [3:09] >> [music] [3:10] >> They're extremely inefficient at taxi. [3:13] You can spend, you know, for a short [3:14] flight you can spend 10% of your fuel [3:16] just taxiing up to the runway. Takeoff [3:18] is inefficient, landing is inefficient, [3:20] so [3:21] that sort of segment of of of flying [3:25] regionally is really badly served by the [3:28] technology [music] they all have today. [3:29] >> And there's already an existing market. [3:31] Half of all flights in the world are [3:33] under 2 hours. [3:34] >> There's a replacement market here that's [3:35] not even driven by cost. The aircraft [3:37] that we're competing with are [3:38] 40-year-old designs. [3:39] >> Regional connectivity is not about how [3:41] far you fly, it's about how cheap you [3:43] fly. This aircraft would be absolutely [3:45] best if it was flying the shortest [3:47] possible route. [3:48] >> Think island hopping in Hawaii or for [3:50] fjord town that goes from being 6-hour [3:52] drive to 20-minute flight. [3:55] >> In the last year you're going from like [3:56] being 33% better operating economics [3:59] overall to 48% just because [music] of [4:01] this increased price in oil. [4:03] >> So, why hasn't anyone built this before? [4:05] It started in Sweden. [4:06] >> And I grew up right next to an air force [4:09] base in Sweden. You saw like the Viggen [4:10] fighter jets going over the soccer [4:12] field. That was always I was super [4:13] excited about that. Really into paper [4:15] airplanes. Just been fascinated with [4:18] planes, you know, rockets and all these [4:21] things. [4:22] >> He did a PhD on jet engines and ended up [4:24] at MIT. [4:26] That's where the idea found him 12 years [4:28] ago. [4:28] >> He comes down to MIT. This is 12 years [4:30] ago. And Elon shows up and he's talking [4:33] about electric planes. He says [4:36] at one point [4:38] that, you know, eventually all modes of [4:40] transportation will go electric besides [4:43] rockets. He's talking about like 400 [4:45] watt hours per kilogram. And it kind of [4:46] felt like a call to arms. [4:48] >> Yeah. [4:50] >> This time I was like working on jet [4:52] engines during the day. I was like [4:54] tinkering with drones at the kitchen [4:55] table at night. Becoming kind of [4:57] obsessed with this. [5:01] I was actually doing research on this [5:03] being paid by the Swedish government to [5:04] go around speak to all the airlines [5:05] before I even had a company. [5:07] >> Mhm. [5:07] >> It's established the relationships [5:10] with the airlines in the Nordics before [5:11] I even like try to build something. [5:14] >> When Anders got to YC, there was no [5:16] playbook [music] for this. [5:17] >> With YC we were all focused on getting [5:18] some like early interest from airlines. [5:21] We got some LOIs from SAS and Braathens [5:24] uh the three Nordic airlines. We really [5:26] had no technology. Like I came to YC [5:29] demo day with a little 3D printed model. [5:31] So, we we went from having the LOIs to [5:33] them building like the 400 kW motor [5:36] which was like the size of a small jet [5:37] engine. That in turn attracted actual [5:40] you know, pre-orders. And then they came [5:43] from United. And then that attracted [5:45] more capital. And then we started [5:46] building. and now we're building towards [5:47] the plane. [5:50] If you're a founder listening to this, [5:51] the learning that you should have is [5:53] every time you need more capital, it [5:56] needs to be something material. [5:57] >> Yeah. [5:58] >> Ideally something physical you can [5:59] touch. [5:59] >> Yeah. [6:00] >> That you can show that you made. Their [6:02] first big airline customer actually came [6:04] out of the spam folder. [6:06] >> United Airlines came through an inbound [6:08] email through our info email. Clara was [6:11] looking at it and she was like, "I think [6:13] this might be a thing." Like he was like [6:14] cleaning out the spam and that led us [6:17] like through the front door. We just [6:19] brought them over, showed showed them [6:20] the electric motor we built that was the [6:22] size of the jet engines we tried to [6:24] replace and they kind of immediately got [6:26] it. [6:26] >> And the design itself? Most electric [6:28] aircraft startups try to look [6:30] futuristic. Heart did the opposite on [6:32] purpose. [6:33] >> It looks very much like the turbo props [6:35] we're trying to replace. We're not [6:36] trying to build a sports car. I'd rather [6:38] build something that looks very [6:39] conventional but is kind of hiding its [6:41] Superman cape under the hood. [6:44] >> This is the first one. [6:45] >> Yeah. [6:45] >> We never even tested this one because we [6:46] just realized that it wouldn't hold. And [6:48] the new one just goes all the way [6:50] through to the bottom here and it's like [6:51] this big thing. So it's like really [6:54] sturdy. [6:55] >> This is the pilot plant. Most of this [6:57] plane is designed and built right here. [7:00] >> This is a cylinder [7:02] body for the actuator. 6061 aerospace [7:06] aluminum. There's about 15 machine [7:09] components in the actuator that we're [7:10] working on developing in-house processes [7:13] for. [7:13] >> In traditional aerospace [music] [7:14] >> this would be a sub-supplier and you [7:16] just source it and you you get it in a [7:18] year to get one. [7:20] And now you can just play around with it [7:21] and test it. [7:24] This is the same basic architecture for [7:26] aileron, rudder, landing gear extension, [7:29] braking, even the pitch [7:32] of the propellers. [7:34] >> If you want to build something in-house, [7:35] you should start with the things that [7:36] you're [7:37] don't have to go to one supplier but you [7:38] go to like eight different. Like so that [7:40] it it's scales with the number of [7:42] technologies rather than the number of [7:43] suppliers. [7:45] >> The whole plant is wired like one giant [7:47] test bench. [7:48] >> You can deconstruct it like a Picasso [7:50] painting. And here's the cockpit, here's [7:52] the cabin, here's [7:54] the tail. And all of this is being fed, [7:57] uh you know, 1.6 megawatts of power to [7:59] could keep the aircraft in the air [8:01] from just everything that's happening [8:03] here. [8:05] We're going to be [8:07] testing fault injection, so [8:09] >> everything from like putting in [8:10] programming error to cutting a wire, [8:12] everything's got to work [8:14] even if everything goes wrong. [8:17] >> Like [music] the first time you get in a [8:18] Model 3 and you're like, "It's just one [8:19] screen." I think that's a lot of the [8:21] idea here. [8:23] As the guy that designed this, he worked [8:24] on the Dragon space capsule. You can fit [8:26] [music] up to 36 passengers. [8:27] >> Yep. [8:28] >> But most common probably going to be 30 [8:31] passengers, which means everybody's [8:32] going to get [8:33] like 6 in of extra legroom. [8:35] >> And the heart of the operation is the [8:37] battery lab where the team is [music] [8:38] choosing to sell for the next aircraft. [8:41] >> This is the battery cell lab where we [8:43] are trying to determine what our cell is [8:45] going to be. We have lots of different [8:47] cells which are on display here um from [8:50] Chinese, American, and Korean [8:52] manufacturers. We can determine which [8:54] one's going to have, you know, the most [8:55] flight cycles, best safety, cost, and [8:58] energy density. [9:01] >> [music] [9:01] >> We talked about Elon coming to MIT 12 [9:04] years ago and talked about like 400 [9:06] watt-hour per kilogram [9:07] batteries. Do we have any cells that are [9:09] like 400 watt-hour per kilogram? [9:10] >> The highest thing that we have on this [9:12] table right now is about 370. One of the [9:15] manufacturers is producing something at [9:17] that 400 level um that we're expecting [9:19] to have within the next couple months. [9:20] It easily meets our targets for the [9:22] first generation of the aircraft. [9:24] >> So, you got the countdown timer there. [9:26] 23 days. Inspired by YC Demo Day. [9:30] >> Yeah. Yeah. [9:30] >> Chrome extension. [9:32] >> The hardest problem had nothing to do [9:34] with the motor or the battery. [9:36] >> It's probably the the the biggest [9:38] challenge we've had in the company. One [9:39] in every thousand flights in the US gets [9:42] diverted to another airport. And kind of [9:44] need 45 minutes of loiter, and then you [9:47] need to go to something that could be [9:48] like 100 miles away. Yeah. So, if you [9:50] build a battery-electric aircraft, you [9:53] kind of have to carry 2/3 of your [9:54] battery needs to be for reserves. [9:56] >> And unlike jet fuel, batteries don't get [9:58] lighter. Their answer is a hybrid [10:00] engine. [10:01] >> We're basing it on on a very simple [10:04] turboprop engine. [10:05] >> It's one of the most inexpensive ones. [10:07] >> We don't have to use it for most [10:08] flights, but it's still adding about, I [10:11] guess, 20% of the upfront cost of the [10:14] aircraft. And I think it's worth it. You [10:15] can fly up to 225 miles all [10:19] electrically, and then you fly up to 500 [10:21] miles with a hybrid system operational [10:23] range. [10:23] >> [music] [10:23] >> That call comes out of the philosophy [10:25] that Anders Borg from SpaceX about how [10:27] you should treat risk. [10:29] >> Traditional aerospace is like, well, the [10:31] the impact is always catastrophic, so [10:33] let's minimize the probability. We don't [10:35] know anything until we know everything. [10:37] Whereas, if you look at, hey, how do we [10:39] minimize impact [10:41] uh to getting it wrong, then you can [10:43] select a process that's a lot cheaper, [10:45] that's a lot easier to iterate on. [10:47] Planes don't crash these days because of [10:48] a broken wing, they crash because of [10:50] broken logic. We want to build a [10:51] software-defined vehicles, the computer [10:53] on wings. [10:55] >> Anders has heard all the doubts. For [10:56] example, why [music] not just build [10:58] flying taxis first? [10:59] >> It's super cool. Like, they're really [11:02] trying to build a flying car. We're [11:03] attacking not the helicopter market, but [11:06] the mainline, you know, like airplane [11:08] market. While these these companies have [11:10] like three or four passengers, we have [11:13] you know, 36. We're also operating from [11:15] an infrastructure that is already there. [11:18] You know, there's 5,000 airports in the [11:20] US. [11:21] >> Another common question he gets is why [11:22] not use hydrogen? [11:23] >> And the same with hydrogen, the great [11:25] thing about using hybrid electric is [11:27] that it's a it's [music] already now at [11:29] a at a and a significant like negative [11:32] green premium. So, you're surfing on a [11:34] much bigger wave. The planes we're [11:35] trying to replace they're 40 years old. [11:37] It's becomes an appreciating asset. The [11:39] plane will actually be better in 10 [11:40] years than when you buy it. It becomes [11:42] like buying a house. [11:43] >> 36 seats is only the beginning. [11:45] >> We love to build a bigger plane. So, the [11:47] large market is the narrow bodies. The [11:49] 737 is the A3320. [11:52] There's [11:53] ridiculous backlogs. Somebody doing what [11:56] SpaceX did with rockets [11:58] on airplanes just makes sense. [11:59] >> [music] [11:59] >> Longer term, the plane's built for a [12:01] world with fewer pilots in the cockpit. [12:04] >> or remote pilot that is supporting many [12:06] aircraft. Kind of like there's remote [12:09] operators of Waymos. Then we're going to [12:11] see autonomy happening in cargo where [12:13] there's, you know, lower stakes and [12:15] then, you know, eventually making its [12:18] way into [12:20] to aircraft. [12:23] Obviously, a lot less noise. There's a [12:25] lot less vibration as well. There's [12:28] going to be more flights. They're going [12:29] to be cheaper ticket, so you're going to [12:31] be able to go to your neighborhood [12:32] airport and take a plane [music] [12:34] in the way you actually could in the [12:35] past. [12:35] >> It's also why Heart is building it here [12:37] in LA, the new center of gravity for [12:39] this kind of company. [12:41] >> This is the ground zero, the most [12:43] historic place when it comes to [12:44] aviation. [music] You have the new space [12:46] ecosystem that's kind of coming from [12:48] SpaceX. You know, companies don't build [12:50] planes, people do. [12:52] This is the moment of seeing seeing it [12:53] literally take off. This is obviously a [12:55] moment I've [12:57] imagined for the last 7 years [music] [12:59] and even seeing it going down the runway [13:00] is kind of gives me the goose bumps. So, [13:02] it's Hopefully, I'll get a moment where [13:05] I kind of [13:06] start seeing [music] the forest for all [13:07] the trees kind of thing. [13:11] >> When this airs, you will have flown the [13:13] largest electric airplane in the world. [13:15] Come a long way from demo day 7 years [13:16] ago. [13:17] >> I'm I'm [13:18] so grateful that you got that [13:19] opportunity and [13:21] now the day is here. It's going to be [13:23] amazing. [13:24] >> 7 years of hard work finally led to [13:26] this. Their first flight on Wednesday, [13:28] August 12th in Plattsburgh, New York. [13:58] >> If you start a new hardware startup [14:01] today everything that you know about [14:03] building heart [music] and your entire [14:04] career [14:05] how how would you get started? [14:07] >> I'm pretty good duck, right? Like I know [14:08] a little bit how to swim. I know a [14:09] little bit how to fly [14:11] and I know a little bit how to walk and [14:13] that's enough for me to know when I find [14:15] somebody that's [14:17] great. I would never start a company [14:19] based on the fact that I wanted to have [14:20] a company or be a founder. I would start [14:22] because I really enjoy, you know, a [14:25] problem. If we can get stuff that is [14:27] lower emission, lower cost, lower [14:29] pollution, [music] [14:30] just better quality of life we should be [14:32] doing it.