Heart Aerospace, a swedish firm with great aspirations, can breathe a little easier following the first flight of its X1, 30-passenger electric airliner. The Biggest Electric Aircaft So Far Its 30-passenger fuselage 76 feet long under a 106-foot span wing, the X1 is the largest electric airplane to fly, if you don’t count Solar Impulse with its 236-foot wingspan (but 5,100 pound weight — lower than that of the passengers on the X1, perhaps). At 25,000 pounds, the Heart X1 outdoes Solar Impulse five to one, carrying that mass on half the wingspan, How did Heart’s designers enable landings on short regional runways? Nacelle Patents One would normally consider enlarging the wing to lower landing speeds and allow landings on shorter regional runways. Heart designers chose to concentrate on nacelle design instead. A September 11, 2024 press release revealed Heart’s thinking on improving flight and landing characteristics. “Heart Aerospace, the Swedish hybrid-electric airplane maker, has filed two EU design applications …
