Start-up hails ‘world first’ flight of hydrogen-powered 19-seater plane over Cotswolds
A HYDROGEN-POWERED 19-seater plane has flown in the skies above the Cotswolds in what its makers claim is a world first.
Zeroavia, an Anglo-us startup backed by Shell and United Airlines, conducted a test flight of its Dornier 228 aircraft yesterday. It claims that the 19-seater is the biggest plane powered with a hydrogen-electric engine to take to the skies.
The aircraft, which has a hydrogenelectric engine on one wing and a jet fuel-powered turboprop engine on the other, took off from the Cotswold airport in Gloucestershire at 1.15pm and was in the air for six minutes.
Val Miftakhov, founder and chief executive of Zeroavia, said: “This is a major moment, not just for Zeroavia, but for the aviation industry as a whole, as it shows that true zero-emission commercial flight is only a few years away.
“The first flight of our 19-seat aircraft shows just how scalable our technology is and highlights the rapid progress of zero-emission propulsion.”
Hydrogen is seen as a logical choice to replace kerosene as a green fuel as it can be made by splitting water molecules using electricity from wind turbines, solar power and other zerocarbon sources.
The main challenge is storing the gas. For Zeroavia’s smaller planes, this will be in tanks at low pressure, which the company believes will suit short-haul trips. It plans to create hydrogen-based fuel cell engines that can be fitted to existing small passenger planes, speeding up their transition to lowcarbon travel, rather than designing a plane from scratch.
The engine on this test flight included a pair of fuel cell stacks generating electricity to power an electric engine, with lithium-ion batteries providing a boost for takeoff. The company’s next step is to test a bigger engine it is developing for 90-seat aircraft, followed by engines for narrow-body aircraft of the type which are the workhorses of flights around Europe.
The company hopes to have its engine certified for commercial usage this year, with a view to them powering planes with paying passengers by 2025 on routes of up to 300 miles.