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Electric aviation has just begun to emerge. We are at the flattest point using the sigmoid curve, but the steep part of the curve is coming. Heart Aerospace will then take off.
Aviation electrification is a key step in the world's decarbonization. Heart Aerospace CEO Anders Forslund devoted his time and energy to fast, efficient and pragmatic goals.
Forslund is one of the well-educated people in the innovative world of low-carbon economy. His first master's degree was in engineering physics, the second was in space technology, and the third was in aerospace and space engineering. Then there is a scholarship to conduct research on probabilistic methods of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Finally, a PhD in product life cycle management and aerospace structural design, followed by research on electrified air transport in Sweden.
He is obsessed with electric airplanes and is a member of dozens of companies in the field, sending a 70-page design analysis as a job application to electronic aviation startups. Since all his time was devoted to space and research in Sweden, he came to a conclusion: Electric aviation will never start in Sweden, which is why he runs one of the most promising electronic airlines outside of his hometown. Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gothenburg is the country's second largest city, located on the west coast opposite the northern end of Denmark, at 57 degrees north latitude, which is 17 degrees closer to the North Pole than New York City. However, it still has a mild climate and has become the center of Swedish engineering and aviation. Growing up in this city, Voslund let Sabo Wigan supersonic fighter jets fly overhead because they were tested at a nearby airport. Electric vehicle company Polestar is also headquartered in the city, making it an electrification center.
Now, Heart Aerospace is operating in Ryanair’s old facility, and one of the Forslund flies in and can walk to his home from there.
Having failed to attract the attention of other electric aviation startups, Forslund was catalyzed by the 2018 announcement. Neighboring Norway has pledged to electrify all its domestic air travel by 2040. Its constitution requires its citizens to quickly go to Oslo to express themselves and their concerns to the government, but it is a country composed of fjords and islands. As a result, a 40-year-old Dash-8 fleet flies a staggering number of short distances every day, which angers the Scandinavians, who are very aware of the impact of climate change.
The situation is different in Sweden, where there is no constitutional lever to maintain short-haul flights. Short-haul flights using modern aircraft engines are expensive. Turboprops are one of the most complex machines ever built, requiring careful and energy-consuming heating and cooling before and after each flight, and they spend 10% of fuel on shorter jump taxis. This combination means that the cost of flying 100 miles for 10 passengers is as high as the cost of flying 500 miles for 70 passengers, so short-haul flights have been reduced from global and Swedish routes. They are just not economically feasible.
But Greta Thunberg's Fridays for Future event spread around the world. The little girl sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament holding a hand-painted sign inspired Sweden's high awareness of climate change and its impact. What followed was flygskam, which means "flight shame" in Swedish. A consistent campaign that features a personal commitment to avoid flying as much as possible, and realizes that Instagram posts that share flights are inconsistent with the reality of global warming. This is not humiliation, but personal shame-it has reduced Sweden’s domestic air travel by 11%.
Therefore, Forslund was encouraged. He and Klara Andreasson, Heart’s co-founder and Forslund’s fiancé, knew they could not accomplish what they were currently doing in Sweden, so they went to California-Mountain View to be precise-they entered Y Combinator and There is a chance to spend two minutes in front of some of the most famous investors in the world.
What are you going to say to these exhausted audiences in two minutes? They have heard almost every tone.
So back to Scandinavia and talk to SAS and BRA airlines that operate pan-Scandinavian and regional flights. They persuaded these airlines to sign a letter of intent to purchase the Heart product when it was launched.
Two minutes with Y Combinators investors discussed the letter of intent, Norway's goals and Heart's planning method. So, funding. With funding, the old Ryanair facility is within walking distance of Forslund's childhood home, a team of 9 people and the beginning of hard work.
Anyone who spends time studying the design of electric aircraft will quickly realize that the freedom the electric drivetrain provides for aerospace engineers means that everything on the airframe will happen. Today, Lillium’s 36 wing-embedded ducted fans, Joby’s tilt-rotor commuter and Ehang’s step-blade automatic air taxis are flying many aircrafts. These aircrafts have ten sites on YouTube and other media. The unimaginable fuselage years ago.
But there is a problem. Certification. Obtaining commercial airframe certification is an extremely slow process because the global aviation industry is the safest way to travel in the world. The crash data maintained by NASA in its Aviation Safety Reporting Database (ASRS) has been carefully analyzed for decades, which means that the new aircraft has many obstacles to jump over before it can enter the air with passengers.
Forslund and the team are not interested in waiting for decades to get the plane into the air. As he said, if we want to decarbonize the world, we need to solve it as soon as possible. Therefore, Heart has set an amazing goal for itself: to deliver a certified aircraft and put it into operation in 2026.
How do you balance the great freedom provided by the electric drivetrain with the need for certified commercial airframes?
First, you set it to 19 seats. In commercial aviation, 20 is a magic number. If you build a 20-person airplane, you must fly through all the same circles like a 853-seat Airbus A380. If you build a 19-person airplane, you will fly much fewer laps. The 19-seat passenger aircraft is suitable for regional flights.
Second, you make it a very boring fuselage, a streamlined bus with wings on top, that looks like a small Dash-8 or any other smaller commuter prop aircraft. Incredibly stable, very easy to understand, and there are no surprises for regulators.
Third, you put all the unique parts, the electric motor and the battery, in the cabin, the parts that hang under the wing and fix the engine and the propeller on the plane, and put four of them on the wing. Four of them allow one to fail without worrying about a safe landing, or even two if they are on opposite wings. The batteries in the cabin-each aircraft is worth about two Teslas-means that any concerns about battery fires are placed outside the cabin, away from passengers.
The size of the aircraft means that Heart can reuse car and truck charging technology. No need for Megachargers, just use the same technology as the Scandinavian crazy electric cars. This also means that if they have to land where they are not planned, it is easy to cheer for them. Unlike hydrogen aircraft, there is no hydrogen infrastructure at any airport in the world, and every airport has electricity. (For those who think hydrogen is the aviation solution, this is another reason why).
It also has another major advantage. They can build a ground test bench with a full-scale cabin, propellers, motors, and batteries, and prove all the unique parts of the aircraft. They did the same.
The company has a team of 9 people and a number of suppliers, designed, manufactured and demonstrated a custom electric motor with 97% efficiency, 2300 Newton-meters of torque and a 7-blade propeller-just a few months instead of Decades.
No wonder members of the Swedish royal family appeared in the demonstrations.
The combination of also very quiet and extremely low engine noise and the 7-blade propeller on the high-torque motor means that the propeller does not have to spin so fast. They have not yet conducted a formal sound test, but they can stand next to the engine in the hanger and have a conversation while it is running. Significant reductions in noise levels mean that airports such as Billy Bishop's Toronto Island Airport will be less troublesome for waterfront neighbors when operating.
The combination of a stable high-wing configuration and huge electric torque on 7 large blades means that they can easily operate outside an airport with a 750-meter (2500-foot) runway, and there are many small airport concrete lengths scattered around. Most regional airports have runways of 2 to 3 kilometers (1.2 – 1.9 miles).
The electric drive system not only eliminates carbon dioxide emissions, but also eliminates nitrous oxide. The global warming potential of N2O and NO2 is 265 times that of CO2, and they are the precursors of ground smog. Burning any fuel in our atmosphere will produce them. There is no burning, no concerns about the health effects of global warming or smog. It is definitely a way to make the airport a better neighbor.
Then, negotiate with more airlines. Mesa Airlines is a regional airline in the Southwestern United States that also operates as a United Express company. It was established in the 1980s and used to conduct small-scale flights between regional airports, but over the years, the economics of modern engines forced it to switch to hub-and-spoke operations and abandon the old routes. Twenty years ago, it was the world's largest operator of 19-seater aircraft, but was forced to cancel routes that served communities in more than a dozen U.S. states. Its average flight distance is just over 170 miles (270 kilometers), which is fully within the target range of Heart.
They immediately saw the opportunity. The manufacturing and maintenance costs of electric aircraft will be lower-much cheaper.
According to Heart, with a moving part, the manufacturing cost of the electric motor in the Heart aircraft will be reduced by 20 times, and the maintenance cost will be reduced by 100 times. Batteries are expensive components, but because of the effective intersection of weight and capacity, they become much cheaper every year, and this trend will only continue. According to Forslund, even if a very conservative 1,500 replacement cycle is simulated, they are still significantly cheaper than current aircraft. The only thing to consider is the wear of the bearings, and even this is not a problem. The motor blows air around instead of bouncing through potholes on the ground, so the damage to the components is much lower.
As a result, Mesa signed a pre-order for 200 aircraft and has the option to purchase 100 more.
Electric aviation has just begun to emerge. We are at the flattest point using the sigmoid curve, but the steep part of the curve is coming. Heart Aerospace will then take off. Pay attention not only to Heart Aerospace, but also to the conclusion of the second half of the conversation with Anders Forslund, which will be launched soon.
He is the chief strategist of TFIE Strategy Inc, the co-founder of distnc Technologies, the strategic advisor and board observer of Agora Energy Technologies. He works with start-ups, existing companies and investors to find significant growth and cost reduction opportunities in our rapidly changing world. His published low-carbon technology and policy analysis can be found on the Forbes, Quartz, and Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation websites. His works are often included in textbooks. Third-party articles about his analysis and interviews have been published on dozens of news websites around the world, and are ranked first on Reddit Science. He can hold consulting and speaking activities as well as board positions.
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