Humanity has taken another step towards zero-emissions aviation after the first-ever flight of a commercial-scale electric-powered aircraft in the UK took place this week. The plane was the startup ZeroAvia’s HyFlyer aircraft, which uses a hybrid hydrogen/electric powertrain to take off.
With their zero emissions, electric-powered aircraft are drawing a lot of interest, but their need for large, heavy battery banks and a lack of range restricts their potential applications. The HyFlyer gets around this by using a new hydrogen fuel cell powertrain comparable in performance to a conventional engine that both increases range and lowers costs by reducing battery cycling.
HyFlyer has already completed full-power ground tests and longer-distance hydrogen-electric test flights are scheduled in the next few months. ZeroAvia believes its hybrid technology is scalable in a short time and the company foresees 10-20-seat aircraft going into service in three years, 50-100-seat versions by 2030, and a 200-seat aircraft with a range of over 3,452 miles by 2040.
The success of the HyFlyer aircraft comes on the back of another big success within the world of electric aviation as the world’s largest electric plane successfully took flight earlier this month. You can read about that story right here.
