H55: The Spark Behind Sustainable Electric-Powered Flight

H55 is a Swiss company pioneering electric propulsion systems for aircraft, from energy storage to battery management. Founded in 2017, they operate across Switzerland, Canada, and France. With roots in the groundbreaking Solar Impulse project, H55’s technology promises to help to decarbonize air transport. H55’s vision is for a cleaner, quieter, more efficient aviation industry.

We head inside H55’s headquarters in Sion, Switzerland with co-founder Gregory Blatt. He tells us more about their B23 aircraft, a two-seater training aircraft powered by electric propulsion. Gregory also explains how PTC’s Codebeamer software allows H55 to ensure compliance and scalability. 

Find out more about H55 here. 

Find out more about Codebeamer here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC. 

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Location recording by Giles Pitts. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Music by Rowan Bishop.

Transcript

Welcome to Third Angle where we're silently soaring on an electric-powered flight. I am your host, Paul Hames from Industrial Software Company PTC. In this podcast, we share the moments where digital transforms physical and meet the brilliant minds behind some of the most innovative products around the world, each powered by PTC technology.

H55 is a Swiss company dedicated to decarbonizing air transport using electric propulsion systems. Supported by PTC partner in ENO Solutions, they're at the forefront of developing certified electric systems for the aeronautics industry, including engines, energy storage and battery management. H55 was founded in 2017 by the former senior leadership team of Solar Impulse, holders of the world record for the longest nonstop flight with a hybrid, solar electric-powered aircraft.

H55 systems promise to transform air travel and make it cleaner, quieter, and more affordable. Our producer, Giles Pitts, visited the H55 headquarters in Sion, Switzerland and spoke to co-founder and chief sales and marketing officer Gregory Blatt. Gregory takes us on a tour around their headquarters and tells us about their B23 aircraft, a two seater training aircraft powered by electric propulsion.

Welcome to H55. We are at our flight operations and integration facility. Here in Sion we have, , three facilities. We have engineering offices. We have a production facility where we produce our battery modules and here, , where we are in, , which is in the airport of Sion, which was formerly a military hangar. This is where we do our flight testing work, our assembly, and, , yeah, where we fly from basically. 

So we're looking at the, , at the first prototype here. We started flying with this airplane in 2019. We just retired it. Right now it's flown well over a hundred hours and maybe more, , flight testing.  and it's still flyable, but you know, we we're always very safe and secure. So we use this for demos, for static display and things like that.  this will not be the final product, the certification, it'll be, , we've built a second one and then we'll be building a third and fourth one, which were the ones that we'll be presenting to certification authorities.

, well, we're looking at a very sleek, , , two seater 750 kilogram, , maximum takeoff weight, the certified product will be more close over, over 850 but this one is 750. Just, you know, two comfortable adults that can fly in this, , flies for an hour, has a reserve, has about a 20 minutes of reserves as well, which is perfect for flight training circuits because typically they do circuits for flight training, they do circuits around the airport. So that allows them to do that part of the program. 

It's, , quite a simple aircraft.  you know, for, for students. You don't wanna be too complicated. It has, , all the avionics that you need for student training. And of course we have our own avionics,  that we add to that, which is, you know, allows us to, to monitor the engine and the batteries, the how the batteries behave. And, , all that data is super important. 'cause we download, we take, we recuperate that data, it's analyzed, and that's used for redesign, for testing, for justifications to the certification authorities. 

Actually, with this airplane that we're looking at right now, the design is exactly the same as its sister aircraft and combustion.  and we didn't have to redesign the airplane to make it electric. In some projects there has, if you're retrofitting,  there has sometimes adjustments been made, you may have to make the wing, the wings longer, but here you put two airplanes side by side. Okay. And they look exactly the same. And as a matter of fact, a lot of the flight schools in Europe that have been buying the combustion version, like the fact that it's exactly the same. So there's a seamless integration for the students, right? So they do their circuit flights on this, on on the electric, and then when they do their long distance flights where they have to go further, then if they get into the combustion, but it's the same airplane, so it looks exactly the same.

The, the difference is you have, if you open up, if we go in the inside, imagine, okay, I take out the wings, you'll see batteries and not a gas tank. In the nose you'll also see batteries in a smaller engine because you don't need the big size of a combustion engine. So we use that space to have batteries.

So it's a, it's a prototype, it's a test badge, , airplane. , but it's flown quite a bit with lots of visitors, not just us. We've had all kinds of visitors from, from all around the world. Pilots, CEOs of, , government people have been in this airplane. Yeah, we've had quite a few people. And whether it's this one or the second airplane, when everybody gets outta the airplane, they say, wow.

, and, and really experienced pilots because there's no noise. You can take off your earphones and talk to one another.  of course there's the sustainability side. It doesn't pollute, , but it's,  very responsive, like an an electric car. The pilots, so the feedback from the market on the performance is very, very good and very positive.

H55's mission is to make aviation clean, quiet, and efficient. So, yeah, so H55 was, is what we call, is the referred to as the technological spinoff or the technological legacy of Solar Impulse.  you know, a journalist friend asked me once, you know, why do you think you succeeded? And the answer was brilliant, you know, because we didn't know it was impossible and we didn't have any money.

And when you think about it. You know, where the paradigm change is coming. I mean, you know, the automobile industry was changed by Elon Musk, right?  you know, the, , Apple changed the photography industry. You know, the incumbents that I grew up with are no longer there. Right. And, , you know, sometimes you need, you know, someone from the outside. To come in and, you know, to think different 'cause you're not constrained, you know, and what kept me in solar impulse was that entrepreneurial mentality pushing the envelope. You know, everybody working together in an organization, you know, with one objective is to build this airplane and show that you can go around the world.

And that's, it's great when everybody's aligned with one objective. It's a fan, it's a fantastic environment. 'cause you can have young social media managers working with experienced flight professionals and learning from each other. And the, the knowledge transfer within the company was, was, was phenomenal.

You know, every day was like going to university. But in a, you know, I wasn't sitting in a classroom. You were sitting in a, in a real life environment. So that's what kept me. And then when Andre and said, said to me, you know, we want you to join. It was, I, I think I, I took me a nanosecond to say yes.

Well, when we started,   55, and again we came from the Solar Impulse,  you know, we're the technological legacy of Solar Impulse, where we really, I think the, what, what we really understood well after flying 48,000 kilometers around the world was,  how to optimize the propulsion system. The propulsion system is one side, the motor, the drive, train, the propeller,  the other side,  think of, don't think of gas, think of batteries. And in between you have energy and power management. So it's a hot, it's, it's a system that includes hardware and software. And of course we're very focused on certification. And we said, we looked at, looked at the market and said at the time, in 2017, what does battery density,  what can it deliver?

And then we looked at are there applications that would be,  relevant to this, you know, to that. And then we quickly understood the flight trainer, market training pilots was very interesting. , the average age of those airplanes, the cessnas, the pipers, you know, 35, 37 years old. So they're going through major, you know, rehauls or changing their motors and, and large, you know, large maintenance milestones that they have to, you know, after a certain amount of hours that they have to undertake.  we said, okay, this could be interesting because they're,  a lot of the flight schools, training facilities, training centers, were thinking about replacing airplanes.

So that was good. We also noticed that, you know, post Covid, we needed, people were flying more, we needed to train more pilots and ,  and flight schools being very sensitive to, particularly in Europe, to the, , , to the noise, , to the pollution aspects on one side, and then the economics. And that's where it gets really interesting because in Europe,  to fly an electric airplane is, you know, the cost of ownership is much less than a combustion.

Let me give you another example. Let me try an example. When you fill up your car, okay, and you spend a Euro, a Pound, a Dollar, okay? You're actually getting one third in propulsion. Okay? So one third of that actually goes of that. You lose another third through the process of combustion. And then the other third approximate, I mean, give approximate numbers, go to powering other other systems. 

With these airplanes, Solar Impulse was like 94% efficiency, this one is around the same thing. So you lose very, very little energy. So already,   you know, the, the cheapest energy you can acquire is the energy that you save, right? So we are starting to see the, you know, the benefits. But again, sustainability, the environment is one part and it's very important, the noise factor, particularly in, in Europe where we have airports over densely populated areas.

 so that's an, an issue.  but just the efficiency of it makes it interesting. And the fact that these technologies, these new technologies we're flying here. We we're looking at a, a, a typical, , fixed wing aircraft, but these technologies now are introducing new concepts, , in the market, we've heard of VTOLs, flying taxis, companies like, like, , JBI or Archer, and that's where the, the, this, these, these,   these new technologies allow for different ways of flying.

It's the same charging technology as automotive. Okay? We, that was a design,  , an important design decision. We didn't want to create a different system, a different set of hardware.  to make it more complicated. So, you know, people, airports are starting to install charging stations, , airside for their own vehicle. So we wanted to make it seamless in that. And basically with this airplane that we were saw before that we took a tour, it's one hour of flying for one hour of charging.

I think in the next couple years we'll see some, , you know, it's hard to make predictions like that, but it's not unrealistic in four or five years to see,  you know, hybrids, you know. And I think, you know, in the commuter regional transport, okay, with fixed wings, you know, with fixed wing designs. I think we'll see that,   you know, in our, for sure in our lifetime, right.

I, I think you need to look at what the aircraft needs to do. Okay? And there won't be one, one size fit all, all solutions. It would be very challenging to have, , batteries in a 747 or 757, you know, from an airplane from New York to, , to London. What we could do, and this is where we're talking to several companies in this way, is use the batteries for non propulsion systems.

Okay. You know, for everything else. So it's all about saving fuels. But for, you know, the EasyJets, the Ryanairs, the ones that we're using to bounce around Europe and flights for one hour, one and a half hours. We see, ,  we see a strong potential in the hybrid. Okay, like with cars, but really, I, I use my product, product, it might be challenging to have a, a, you know, an EasyJet, an Airbus,  you know, 320 or 321, all batteries, but, , hybrid, , solutions and a lot of companies are looking at that.

So here's what I think of the role of AI. Again, not being an engineer or an expert in the field. But you know, it's a, AI is a generic word and it's been used in so many, we've been using AI, I mean, for, for a long time in aviation, you know, the systems, you know, most fights, the pilots do very little flying.

It's the computers that actually fly the airplane, you know. If you to call that AI, for me, that's AI, right? But, ,  so it's AI it's already been in the industry. You know, I was driving to work yesterday. You know, even my, my cruise control of my car, is that AI because it knows that there's a car in front of me 'cause it has a camera and it slows down automatically? 

I guess that's AI, right? I didn't make that decision. He made that decision, right. Based on the, on the now, is he better at making that decision quicker? Making the decision? Probably. Okay. In, in some, in some cases. Not always. But yeah, so,  but I, those type of technologies, you know, exist already, right?

So I think the aviation industry, and let's face it a lot, what comes into the aviation industry comes from military first, right. And military brought us some fantastic technologies like GPS and things like that. ,  so I think, you know, and obviously aviation is a big component of the military. They financing, , working with companies and, you know, in research and development. So there's a good moment , you know, especially in, you know, countries like the United States.

Again, looking at, you know, looking at the, the world beneath us,  in a quiet way. Just when I, when the couple times I've flown,  it's almost as if, I want to talk to the pilot, but part of me just wants to take in the moment, you know, and just enjoy the silence, you know?  because it's a, it's a type of silence that you don't experience every day, okay?

You have silence in your bedroom when you go to sleep at night, but it's not the thing. Imagine your flyings and you have this panoramic view, it's like you're watching, like an old silent movie, except that scenery is not Charlie Chapton dancing in a funny way. It's beautiful Swiss Alps with a,  you know, with gorgeous scenery.

There, there's a whole experience side of flying. I, we've talked a lot about the economics, about the, about the sustainability side, about it, and  but there's a whole new experience of, of flying and that's what really impresses people. So the future is now for me.

That was Gregory Blatt, sharing H55's vision of a future with greener and more efficient air travel. Now it's time to meet our expert, Mark Simpson from PTC. Hello, Mark, we've not spoken about PTCs Codebeamer before on Third Angle. Are you able to give a high level overview of what it is and how H55 will be using it?

A lot of the industries that we, , we serve are really focused on a, a shift in the market to software-defined products and a lot of these industries,  safety critical industries. And then also there's a lot of, , rigor around regulatory standards that kind of govern and define these industries. So, you know, our customers in, in these industries, , really have to equip their users with an ability to have extensive test management capabilities that test the product in a way that not only adhere to those standards and, and the safety, , requirements, but all of the regulatory requirements,  around those and produce very high quality products as well.

So Codebeamer can achieve this with, you know, specifying requirements and then also,  mapping that back to testing or validating the requirement is actually implemented properly and with quality. I mean, it does that by tracing the, the requirement all the way across to the verification and, and that ensures functional safety.

Codebeamers, the, the product that does this, it's a, it's, it's kind of a new generation of, , application lifecycle management or a ALM and in addition to specifying requirements and tests, it, it also does risk analysis.  and it also does that in a very agile way in the industry. We call it safe or secure, agile framework.

And so simply put Codebeamer accelerates software delivery while simplifying, you know, regulatory compliance. So when we get to, , H55, this is a company that's just really committed to accelerating the adoption of clean aviation. And as part of that and bringing these products to market,  they have to have full traceability of the, the requirements that are specifying the architecture of the product.

 and at the same time adhering to regulatory standards and meeting, , the specific needs of each of their customers. So it's very flexible. So from the development specifications to their implementation and the products. It's really important to them that they're able to document and demonstrate,  conformity at every stage of the development of their product.

 and this is most important during the final or one of the final stages of testing and verification. And that way they can prove that their development is in line with their customer's expectation, and very importantly, that the standards issued by their regulators are also adhered to. So Codebeamer has enabled them to develop electric motors, and it also has provided a lightweight, scalable, and very high performing platform for their product development.

Thanks to Mark and to Gregory and our producer Giles, for taking us behind the scenes of H55. Please rate, review and subscribe to our bi-weekly Third Angle episodes, wherever you listen to your podcasts, and follow PTC on LinkedIn and X for future episodes. Companies that make products the world relies on rely on PTC.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive Producer is Jacqui Cook. Location recording by Giles Blatt, Sound Design and Editing by Clarissa Maycock and Music by Rowan Bishop.