The world's largest electric plane takes flight | Popular Science

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The world’s largest electric plane takes flight

The 25,000-pound aircraft flew for 27 minutes.

By Mack DeGeurin

Published

Aug 16, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

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Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator, the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown, crosses the Champlain Valley near Plattsburgh, New York, at sunrise during its first flight in August 2026.

Image: Heart Aerospace

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The world’s largest, fully battery-powered jet officially completed its maiden flight. The successful test run marks a noteworthy step forward for long-awaited electric aircraft and battery technology broadly, but don’t expect to book a fully battery-powered flight anytime soon.

Manufactured by Los Angeles-based Heart Aerospace, the plane is called the X1. It has a 106-foot wingspan, measures 76 feet from nose to tail, and weighs more than 25,000 pounds, roughly the weight of an empty school bus. The 30-seat plane took off earlier this week from a regional airport in upstate New York, and flew for 27 minutes on battery power alone, reaching an altitude of 1,100 feet. It didn’t carry passengers, just a single pilot.

This week’s flight was an early test run for Heart’s broader commercial ambition: a hybrid-electric plane called the ES-30, which the company ambitiously hopes to bring into service by 2031. That model has already garnered interest from major airlines including United, Air Canada, and JSX, drawn in by the promise of lower maintenance costs and insulation from volatile jet fuel prices.

“With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the scale of a commercial airliner," Heart Founder and CEO Anders Forslund said in a statement.

Heart Aerospace – X1 First Flight – World’s Largest Electric Aircraft – Electric Airliner

Heart Aerospace was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, but officially relocated to Los Angeles in April 2025 as part of its effort to get its regional hybrid-electric plane off the ground. It’s one of several aviation companies capitalizing on rapid innovation in battery tech in recent years to try to reshape air travel, or a small, regional segment of it at least. The potential benefits are two-fold. On one hand, battery-powered planes, especially those drawing electricity from renewable sources, offer a cleaner alternative to environmentally harmful jet fuel. Aviation broadly accounts for an estimated 2.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Worse still, planes produce other harmful heat-trapping emissions like nitrogen oxides. The aviation industry set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, but even with innovations in sustainability and cleaner fuel, that target seems almost certain to fail.

The cockpit mockup installed aboard Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator aircraft for its rollout. Image: Heart Aerospace

Emerging electric aviation could make a dent in those emissions, but it certainly won’t transform the industry in the near future. The bigger sell for airlines comes from promised cost savings. Anyone who’s flown in the past six months likely knows that the cost of jet fuel is heavily subject to world events. Jet fuel prices averaged $3.50 per gallon a week prior to the test flight. That’s up 63 percent from last year. Beyond just fuel, though, electric motors also have fewer moving parts, which, in theory at least, means they should require less costly maintenance and repair. Automakers have made similar arguments when advocating for electric vehicles.

Heart claims that a combination of less fuel and maintenance combined should make their eventual ES-30 40 percent cheaper to operate than conventional regional aircraft of similar sizes. Going further, the company claims that all electric X1 test flights used just $5 of electricity. That sounds impressive at first, but it’s worth noting what that eye-grabbing figure leaves out. That single-figure dollar only measures the raw energy costs and not other operating costs like crew, airport fees, maintenance fees, long-term battery degradation, and other expenses. How much airlines actually save if they switch the hybrid eclectic plane, and whether any of those savings get passed on to travelers,...