Heart Aerospace Unveils Hybrid-Electric ES-36 Regional Airliner & JSX Purchase Agreement

(Los Angeles, California & Dallas, Texas) Heart Aerospace today (Sept. 23) unveiled its ES-36 hybrid-electric regional airliner, and simultaneously announced a deposit-backed purchase agreement from JSX for 50 of the 36-seater aircraft, with purchase rights for 50 additional planes.

Rendering of a Heart Aerospace ES-36 hybrid-electric airliner featuring JSX livery courtesy of Heart Aerospace.

Per today’s press release from Heart Aerospace, JSX’s agreement converts its 2023 letter of intent (LOI) with Heart into a deposit-backed purchase commitment and secures early delivery positions for the air carrier, thereby advancing its partnership with Heart Aerospace from aircraft development toward fleet introduction.

According to Heart, its ES-36 production aircraft evolves the previously announced Heart ES-30 with a simplified two-nacelle airframe and series-hybrid electric propulsion architecture, which is designed to further improve the Heart production aircraft’s operating cost advantage over legacy regional aircraft.

Specifically, compared with the ES-30, the ES-36 adds six passenger seats and 1,415 pounds of payload capacity — increasing both by 20 percent while retaining the same maximum takeoff weight and battery capacity as the prior design, per Heart.

Additional ES-36 specs, per Heart Aerospace:

• twin series-hybrid powertrains, with each utilizing a 1.65-megawatt electric motor to drive a propeller;
• ground-charged onboard batteries provide an all-electric range of 125 miles (200 kilometers), plus reserves
• A hybrid range of 745 iles, plus reserves

“The ES-36 design is a direct result of what Heart learned designing, building, testing and flying our X1 demonstrator aircraft,” said Ben Stabler, Chief Technology Officer at Heart. “Those learnings have helped us make the production aircraft more capable in the air and more productive for operators. The ES-36 carries more passengers and payload, creating greater revenue-generating potential for operators like JSX, while targeting operating costs at least 40 percent lower than legacy regional aircraft.”

JSX CEO Alex Wilcox said: “JSX is proud to back the development of the next-generation aircraft that will deliver the best travel experience for our Customers, expand the destinations available to them, and strengthen our business. The hybrid-electric ES-36 will enable more nonstop routes from more convenient airports while further elevating the award-winning, no-middle-seat onboard experience that JSX Customers love. We’re excited to work with Heart to tailor the ES-36 to JSX’s operations.”

Previously, on August 13th, Heart anounced the first flight of its X1 demonstrator.

The company is now building its first pre-production ES-36 aircraft at the company’s pilot manufacturing plant in Los Angeles, targeting first flight in the second half of 2028 and entry into service in 2031, following FAA Part 25 certification.