In this week's What We're Watching, Heart Aerospace's X1 demonstrator takes off from Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York, becoming the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown. With a 106-ft (32-m) wingspan, a length of 76 ft (23 m), and a takeoff weight topping 25,000 lb (11,340 kg), the piloted, passenger-free aircraft flew for 27 minutes and reached 1,100 ft (335 m), with its electric powertrain delivering more than one megawatt of power—all for roughly $5 worth of electricity.

The flight, conducted under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate in the Experimental Category, ran through a full flight profile: taxiing, takeoff, climb, maneuvering, and landing. X1 is a full-scale stand-in for Heart's production aircraft, the ES-30, a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner in development for FAA Part 25 certification. United Airlines, Air Canada, and JSX have already committed roughly $9.4 billion toward the program, and Heart projects the ES-30 will cut operating costs by more than 40% versus conventional regional aircraft once it enters service in 2031.

The video walks through what a battery-electric powertrain changes on the manufacturing and operations side, including fewer moving parts than a traditional turboprop engine, lower expected maintenance, and a cost structure that isn't tied to jet fuel prices, which have climbed sharply this year. It's a look at how far electric propulsion has come toward commercial-airliner scale, and what regional carriers are betting on as the next step past today's demonstrator flights.