Florida's Regional-Hop Problem May Finally Get a Battery-Powered Fix

Heart Aerospace says its new ES-36, an all-electric airliner built for short regional routes, is expected to make its first flight in 2028 and enter passenger service in 2031, carrying up to 36 people at a time. For a state where Palm Beach, Naples and Miami often feel like three separate coasts stitched together by long drives and short hops, a plane sized exactly for that kind of trip is worth noting well ahead of its arrival. It is not built for transatlantic ambition or big-airport bragging rights — just for getting a small group of people from one Florida runway to another, quietly.

With reporting from Robb Report.