28 SEPTEMBER 2020

Index


© 2022 Business Travel News Ltd.

Article from BTNews 28 SEPTEMBER 2020

First hydrogen-electric passenger plane flight

Cranfield University airfield in England was last Thursday (24 September) the venue of what is claimed to be the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell-powered flight of a commercial-grade aircraft.

Using a Piper M class six-seat aircraft (PA46) ZeroAvia’s R&D facility hosted a flight programme which included a full pattern circuit and safe landing.This major milestone on the road to commercial zero-emission flight is part of the HyFlyer project, a sequential R&D programme supported by the UK Government and follows the UK’s first ever commercial-scale battery-electric flight, conducted in the same aircraft in June. (See also Jet Zero Council launched in this week's BTN.)

ZeroAvia will now turn its attention to the next and final stage of its six-seat development programme – a 250-mile zero emission flight – out of an airfield in Orkney before the end of the year. The demonstration of this range is roughly equivalent to busy major routes such as Los Angeles to San Francisco or London to Edinburgh.

www.zeroavia.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum


David Starkie, London

My earlier understanding was that Cranfield were using the BN Islander as a test bed for electric flight. Shame development seems to have gravitated to a Piper. The BN aircraft is the only complete airframe still assembled in the UK.


www.btnews.co.uk