Heart Aerospace today announced a USD2.9 million award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under Phase IV of the agency’s Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN) public-private partnership programme. CLEEN brings the FAA and aerospace manufacturers together to develop and test aircraft technologies with improved performance and safety, said Heart in a press release. With an equal cost share from Heart, the award supports a USD5.8 million, 24-month R&D and demonstration project.
“The award will fund Heart’s Project HYPER (Hybrid Propulsion Environmental Readiness), which will advance development and testing of a Heart turbogenerator for the ES-36’s series-hybrid propulsion system,” said the company. “Each of the aircraft’s two propulsion nacelles will house a megawatt-class turbogenerator that produces electricity in flight, extending the ES-36’s range beyond what batteries alone can provide.
“Through Project HYPER, Heart will develop and test the ES-36 turbogenerator on the company’s pre-production aircraft, scheduled to make its first flight in 2028. The project will begin with ground testing to evaluate how the turbogenerator, batteries and electric motors work together in different operating modes, before progressing to demonstration flights aboard the pre-production ES-36. The project will generate data on energy use, fuel burn, emissions, and noise to support ES-36 certification and inform the FAA’s approach to evaluating and certifying hybrid-electric aircraft more broadly.”
The CLEEN award extends FAA support for the development of Heart’s hybrid-electric powertrain, initially provided through the agency’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program, says the company. That funding supported development of Heart’s Total Hybrid Electric Management and Integration System (THEMIS), the propulsion control architecture that coordinates the ES-36’s electric motors, turbogenerators and batteries during flight.
Together, the turbogenerators and THEMIS will enable ES-36 to fly on battery power alone for short-haul routes and will supplement battery power with electricity generated from Jet A and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for longer regional missions. Heart is targeting an ES-36 all-electric range of 125 miles and a hybrid range of up to 745 miles, both plus reserves.
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(Image: Heart)