Hybrid-electric developer Heart Aerospace is to abandon its long-term Swedish home and relocate operations to Los Angeles to “accelerate development” of its 30-passenger ES-30 aircraft.
However, the move will have a significant impact the company’s 75-strong Swedish workforce, with the latest redundancies coming on top of the 72 positions Heart axed in February 2024 after implementing a significant design change to the ES-30.
Heart has been based at Save airport near Gothenburg since its inception in 2018 but last year announced its intention to open a new research and development centre in El Segundo, just to the south of LA’s main international airport; that facility was inaugurated earlier in April.
Justifying the transatlantic shift, Heart says the “strategic move aims to bolster the company’s product development in the United States” and will “enable a bigger scale-up of the US-based team”.
While expressing his gratitude to the Swedish staff “for being part of this chapter of Heart’s journey”, founder and chief executive Anders Forslund says that with the firm’s customers, investors and partners increasingly based in the USA “we see greater opportunity in focusing our resources here”.
“By consolidating our operations in Los Angeles, we can accelerate development, strengthen collaboration, and better position Heart Aerospace for the future,” he says.
Although the development work has been led by the team in Gothenburg, the Swedish company’s accounts have for several years listed its parent company as Heart Aerospace Inc – a US-registered business formed in 2019.
A separate company, Heart Aerospace US LLC, was set up in May 2024, Delaware business records show.
Heart’s existing US focus is not confined to R&D operations: the firm announced last November plans to conduct flight tests of its all-electric HX-1 prototype from Plattsburgh International airport in upstate New York.
Originally planned for the second quarter of 2025, that milestone has slipped into the latter half of the year after a structural test led it to replace the HX-1’s composite wing as a “precautionary step”, causing “a delay of a few months”.
“While our extensive load testing showed that the wing could withstand the flight-limit load, we saw that some of the material properties of the composites differed somewhat from what we’d predicted and decided to rebuild it,” Heart says.
“We prioritise safety and reliability above all else – even if that requires adjusting our schedule.”
Heart says it has also made “major design updates” to the HX-1 since its roll-out last September, enhancing “both the propulsion system and the airframe”.
Although Heart has not provided an estimate of the cost of the move to LA, its finances have been boosted by another $40 million pledged by an existing investor, building on the $107 million raised in its Series B round last year.
Development of the HX-1 had been part-funded by Sweden’s Vinnova innovation agency. However, Heart says it sees no implications from its US switch.
“The project that received funding from Vinnova has been concluded,” it says.
Heart’s plans call for the HX-1 to be followed in 2026 by the HX-2 – a pre-production prototype which will be the first of its aircraft to fly on hybrid-electric power.
It will be fitted with the company’s “independent hybrid” propulsion system: a pair of turboprop engines on the outboard part of the wing and twin inboard electric motors.
Certification and service entry for the ES-30 are due in 2029. Heart has yet to disclose where it plans to build the type, but Forslund has previously said a new factory would need to open around 2027.
“Our current focus is on strengthening product development in the U.S. to support the upcoming experimental flights of the X1 and X2 prototypes,” it says.
