On January 19, ZeroAvia, a hydrogen-powered aircraft manufacturer, made history by completing the first flight of a real 19-seater, twin-engine Dornier 228 aeroplane fitted with a prototype hydrogen-electric powertrain.
This aircraft's first flight sets a record for the giant hydrogen-electric engine-powered plane in history, which is a significant development for sustainable aviation. The flight left Gloucestershire, UK's Cotswold Airport and lasted ten minutes.
The 10-minute flight left from the business' R&D centre at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The aircraft finished its taxi, takeoff, complete pattern circuit, and landing at 1:35 PM GMT today. The historic flight is a part of the HyFlyer II project, an effective R&D effort backed by the UK Government's top ATI Programme that aims to develop a 600kW powertrain to enable 9–19 seat aircraft to travel around the world with zero emissions.
The ZeroAvia hydrogen-electric engine was retrofitted onto the twin-engine aircraft's left wing, where it coexisted with the single-stock Honeywell TPE-331 engine. The hydrogen-electric powertrain in this testing setup consists of two fuel cell stacks. Lithium-ion battery packs provide peak power support during takeoff and add additional redundancy for safe testing. This testbed configuration housed the cabin's hydrogen tanks and a fuel cell power generation system. External storage would be used in a commercial configuration to restore the seats.
Every system worked as intended. This is the largest ZeroAvia engine that has been tested to date. It puts the company directly on the path to a certifiable configuration that will be finished and submitted for certification in 2023. This programme also acts as a key to enabling rapid technological development for larger aircraft. With the already-in-progress 2-5 MW powertrain programme from ZeroAvia, the clean engine technology will be scaled for up to 90-seat aircraft, with additional expansion into narrowbody aircraft demonstrators over the following ten years.
© Vygr Media Private Limited 2022. All Rights Reserved.
