Hydrogen-electric aircraft company ZeroAvia recently completed the inaugural flight of its 19-passenger aircraft at its R&D facility at Cotswold Airport, according to Lara News.
Remarkably, the company accomplished this milestone just less than a month after securing the permit to fly from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK.
Biggest hydrogen-electric aircraft in the world
As mentioned above, the aircraft is a 19-seat Dornier 228 twin-engine powered by hydrogen. Its first flight sets a record for the biggest hydrogen-electric engine aircraft in the world, which is a significant development for clean aviation.
In addition to a single Honeywell TP-331 standard engine on the right, the aircraft was modified to include ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric engine on its left wing.
The report noted that this milestone occurred two years after the six-seat Piper Malibu aircraft’s first flight. A 250kW hydrogen-electric powertrain powered it.
Flight details
The aircraft took off from Kemble at 13:35 in testbed mode as part of the HyFlyer II project. As per the report, it is a significant R&D initiative supported by the ATI Programme of the UK government for developing 600kW zero-emission plane powertrains.
Remarkably, all the aircraft’s systems worked as intended throughout the flight, which lasted 10 minutes. It performed the take-off, taxi, landing, and whole pattern circuit tests flawlessly. Watch the video below:
“The first flight of our 19-seat aircraft shows just how scalable our technology is and highlights the rapid progress of zero-emission propulsion. This is only the beginning – we are building the future of sustainable, zero climate impact aviation.”
CEO Val Miftakhov
This flight advances ZeroAvia’s certification process, which it hopes to complete and submit this year.
Notably, this pilot program is anticipated to involve at least 10 to 12 flights, including longer flights, at its facilities in Kemble and several airports. The outcomes will influence the final engine design that ZeroAvia will submit for certification.
Orders
ZeroAvia’s founder and CEO Val Miftakhov stated in a press conference that the company had received about 1500 orders for its hydrogen-electric powertrains, which cover a variety of aircraft types. Apparently, 600 to 700 of these are orders for this specific 600kW model.
“We know the technology works, and at the right scale, the challenge now is certification and final design iteration.”
CEO Val Miftakhov
This milestone is indeed a significant development in the sustainable aviation industry. Hopefully, the technology will secure the required certifications this year, so we can finally see its commercial adoption soon.
