GLOUCESTERSHIRE, U.K. - A startup company made aviation history Thursday when it successfully flew the largest ever hydrogen-electric powered aircraft, which could pave the way for less environmentally harmful flights, Megan Cerullo reports for CBS. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
23 January 2023 -The flight took place from the company’s R&D facility at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire, UK, and lasted 10 minutes. At 13.35 pm GMT this afternoon the aircraft completed taxi, take-off, a full pattern circuit, and landing. The landmark flight forms part of the HyFlyer II project, a major R&D program backed by the UK Government’s flagship ATI Program, which targets development of a 600kW powertrain to support 9-19 seat aircraft worldwide with zero-emission flight.
The twin-engine aircraft was retrofitted to incorporate ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric engine on its left wing, which then operated alongside a single Honeywell TPE-331 stock engine on the right. In this testing configuration, the hydrogen-electric powertrain comprises two fuel cell stacks, with lithium-ion battery packs providing peak power support during take-off and adding additional redundancy for safe testing. In this testbed configuration, hydrogen tanks and fuel cell power generation systems were housed inside the cabin. In a commercial configuration, external storage would be used and the seats restored.
All systems performed as expected. This is the largest ZeroAvia engine tested to date, and places the company on the direct path to a certifiable configuration to be finalized and submitted for certification in 2023, with this programme also serving as key to unlocking speedy technology development for larger aircraft. ZeroAvia’s 2-5 MW powertrain programme, already underway, will scale the clean engine technology for up to 90-seat aircraft, with further expansion into narrowbody aircraft demonstrators over the next decade.
Related: UK's CAA gives ZeroAvia CAA the green light for new hydrogen-electric test flights
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
