¶Heart Aerospace has completed the inaugural flight of its X1 technology demonstrator aircraft, which the start-up said is the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown. The milestone—which lasted a total of 27 minutes—took place on Wednesday from California-based Heart’s flight test base at New York’s Plattsburgh International Airport.

¶[T]he aircraft reached an altitude of 1,100 feet agl while its all-electric propulsion system delivered over one megawatt of power. 

¶Heart’s X1 full-scale demonstrator is the precursor of its thirty seat ES-30 hybrid-electric regional airliner, which the company intends to enter service in 2031.

¶I wonder if the future of electric flight is not a full-scale replacement of existing gas-powered commercial jets, but rather a supplement to them, perhaps replacing smaller planes for regional flights. Shorter distances, fewer passengers, and maybe lower altitudes?

¶Regardless of where they end up fitting into the system, it is becoming clear that electric planes will disrupt aviation in some manner over the next decade or so.

¶Facing the uncertainty caused by lawsuits, grant slowdowns, and other pressures from the administration, Harvard and other schools are likely to continue to retrench, said Tom Gerety, a former president of Amherst College.

¶“The main thing you do in uncertainty is hunker down and say, ‘What cuts can we make right now?’” he said, noting that research universities are already trimming back on Ph.D. programs.

¶Tighter research budgets will mean scientists are more likely to seek jobs outside the United States, he said, while those still at American schools may be less likely to take the unconventional big swings in their research that can lead to scientific breakthroughs.

¶“This is going to hurt,” Mr. Gerety said, “and it’s going to hurt a lot more in 10 years than it does now.”

¶Unfortunately, the negative impact of Trump’s crusade against leading American universities on American science and research likely will be a major component of his legacy.

¶Fewer scientists in the United States, taking smaller swings in their research. In the future, when this legacy has been fully realized, we must work to remind people that Trump did that. Legacy indeed.