UK firm EAG details development roadmap for hybrid-electric regional airliner
By Dominic Perry 6 August 2020
A UK company planning to bring a 70-plus-seat hybrid-electric regional aircraft to market by 2028 has laid out its detailed plans for the programme, which will include demonstrator flights from 2024 and will cost a cool $5 billion to bring into series production.
Unveiled during the FIA Connect virtual Farnborough air show in late July, the Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft (HERA) is being developed by Electric Aviation Group (EAG), a company spearheaded by founder and chief executive Kamran Iqbal, who has significant experience in the aerospace sector, predominantly working for Airbus. Other members of the firm’s leadership team have also amassed long stints working at the European airframer.
The all-composite HERA design is driven by four electric propulsors – the inboard pair are powered by 1.5MW electric motors, while the outboard units are each sized at 0.5MW. A pair of 2MW turbogenerators are housed in the inboard nacelles, supplying electrical power to all four motors. A separate battery pack is located in the aircraft’s fuselage and wings, providing take-off and emergency power.
Crucially, the design only uses around…