The X1 flew for 27 minutes at Plattsburgh on 12 August, at 25,000 pounds on batteries alone.
The week in air transport: one first flight, two proposed directives and one final rule from the FAA, a tenth Dreamliner for Aeroméxico, and new leadership at Gol.
Battery-electric flight at 25,000 pounds takeoff weight is now on the public record, with a date and a place.
Key points
- First flight of the Heart X1 on 12 August: 27 minutes, 1,100 feet, more than one megawatt, under an experimental certificate
- Two FAA proposals on the A330, A340 and Trent 1000, comments due 28 September; one final rule on the ATR 42 and 72, effective 18 September
- AerCap's tenth 787 to Aeroméxico; a new chief executive at Gol; a TSA order to Mitre for an airline-sector cybersecurity profile
Heart Aerospace's X1 demonstrator made its first flight on Wednesday 12 August from Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York.1 The company puts the aircraft at 106 feet of span and more than 25,000 pounds at takeoff, and says the piloted flight lasted 27 minutes, reached 1,100 feet above the ground and drew more than one megawatt from an all-electric propulsion system.1 It flew under an FAA special airworthiness certificate in the experimental category.1 The X1 is the demonstrator for the ES-30, a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner Heart is aiming at entry into service in 2031.1
The FAA put out two proposed directives and one final rule on transport-category types in two days. One proposal would require repetitive leak checks of fuel low-pressure shut-off valves on the A330 and A340, prompted by reports of leaks on closed valves.2 The other would supersede AD 2025-26-03 on Trent 1000 engines, keeping the repetitive borescope inspections of the high-pressure compressor drum and adding a change to the bolting arrangement at the compressor shaft as the action that ends them.3 Comments on both close on 28 September.2,3 The final rule extends the horizontal-stabilizer inspection on ATR 42-500 and 72-212A aircraft to more airplanes and more areas, effective 18 September.4
Elsewhere in the record, AerCap delivered its tenth 787 on lease to Aeroméxico,5 Gol named André Fehlauer chief executive from September, with Celso Ferrer stepping down on 31 August, and made Albert Perez president and chief operating officer,6 and the Transportation Security Administration ordered an airline-sector cybersecurity framework community profile from Mitre, at $1.1 million.7
What the week changes: battery-electric flight at 25,000 pounds takeoff weight is now on the public record, with a date and a place.1 The A330, A340 and Trent 1000 proposals add inspection work to fleets already in service, and 28 September is the date by which operators and the manufacturers can put their costs on the docket.2,3
Sources, in the order cited
- 1PR Newswire, Airlines and Aviation, 13 August 2026 · Heart Aerospace completes first flight of world's largest electric aircraft
- 2Federal Register, 13 August 2026 · Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes. Notice of proposed rulemaking, docket FAA-2026-8780
- 3Federal Register, 13 August 2026 · Airworthiness Directives; Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG Engines. Notice of proposed rulemaking, docket FAA-2026-7240
- 4Federal Register, 14 August 2026 · Airworthiness Directives; ATR-GIE Avions de Transport Régional Airplanes. Final rule, AD 2026-16-07
- 5PR Newswire, Airlines and Aviation, 14 August 2026 · AerCap, Boeing and Aeroméxico celebrate Dreamliner milestones
- 6PR Newswire, Airlines and Aviation, 13 August 2026 · Gol announces leadership changes
- 7USAspending.gov, award dated 10 August 2026 · Contract award to The Mitre Corporation, Transportation Security Administration, $1,104,000
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