Sweden’s Heart Aerospace made a loss of nearly SKr250 million ($22 million) last year as development activities on the start-up’s ES-30 hybrid-electric aircraft gathered pace.
Accounts for the period to 31 December 2022 show a loss after financial items of SKr243 million, up from SKr77.8 million the year before.
Such losses are expected for a programme in its early stages – deliveries are not scheduled to begin until 2028 – given the investment in staff, equipment and materials required.
Heart disclosed the ES-30 development in September last year, simultaneously abandoning plans for the smaller ES-19.
Reflecting the ramp-up of activity, the average number of employees last year increased to 101 from 24 in the previous 12-month period. By December 2022, Heart had 138 employees, it adds.
Heart says, during the year, it held discussions with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regarding the ES-30’s development and certification timetable, reflecting a two-year delay over the ES-19.
“Physical trials have been held together with the EASA project certification manager and their managers for the various engineering departments, with the aim of familiarising them with the general aspects of the ES-30,” the accounts note.
It flags “great progress” with the application for Production Organization Approval (POA) which was accepted during the year and a kick-off meeting related to the process was held in August 2022.
Heart says the POA and Design Organization Approval processes are “progressing well”; in the latter case, the second of five phases has been completed.
Additionally, an “integrated test facility” was completed at Heart’s Save airport headquarters near Gothenburg.
A total of 30 orders for the ES-30 were added during 2022, all from Air Canada, which also became a shareholder in the business.
Since then, the backlog has grown further: Heart now claims 250 firm orders, with options and purchase rights for another 120 aircraft, plus 91 options.
While the Swedish business is conducting the development work, its parent company is listed as Heart Aerospace Inc – a Delaware-registered company with premises in Palo Alto, California.
