29th January 2023

World's largest hydrogen-electric plane takes off

Zero-emission aviation is one step closer, with a 19-seat aircraft completing its first test flight powered by a hydrogen-electric engine.

ZeroAvia, a British/American aerospace company founded in 2017, has completed a successful first flight of the largest aircraft in the world to be powered by a hydrogen-electric engine. This involved a 19-seat, twin-engine Dornier 228 as a testbed, retrofitted with a full-size prototype hydrogen-electric powertrain on the left wing of the aircraft.

The maiden flight took place from the company's R&D facility at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire, UK, and lasted 10 minutes. During that time, the aircraft completed taxi, take-off, a full pattern circuit, and then landing. The landmark flight forms part of the HyFlyer II project, a major R&D programme backed by the UK government, aimed at developing a 600kW powertrain to support 9-19 seat aircraft with zero-emission flight.

The twin-engine plane incorporated 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 puts the company on a direct path to a certifiable configuration to be finalised and submitted later in 2023. This programme also paves the way to technology development for much larger aircraft. After the first commercial offering in 2025, the company intends to scale up its current 2-5 MW powertrain programme for use in aircraft with 200+ seats by 2040.

Almost exactly two years ago, ZeroAvia conducted the first of more than 30 flights of a six-seat Piper Malibu, using a 250kW powertrain. This month's flight occurred under a full Part 21 permit from the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, which has a much more stringent set of requirements compared to the framework used for the earlier six-seat prototype test flights. This signifies the maturity of the company's processes and design approaches and its readiness to proceed towards full commercial certification.

In addition to its flight milestone, ZeroAvia has achieved significant commercial momentum in recent months, with 1,500 engines on pre-order and partnerships with seven aircraft manufacturers, as well as fuel and airport partnerships. This includes an engine order from American Airlines, the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passenger mile.

ZeroAvia will now conduct further test flights of the Dornier 228 from Gloucestershire, and later demonstration flights from other airports, as it works towards delivering commercial routes using hydrogen-electric engines by 2025.

"Today's flight is a hugely exciting vision of the future – guilt-free flying and a big step forward for zero-emission air travel," said Grant Shapps, the UK Secretary of State for Business. "It also demonstrates how government funding for projects like these is translating into net zero growth."

"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," said ZeroAvia's founder and CEO, Val Miftakhov. "This is only the beginning – we are building the future of sustainable, zero climate impact aviation. Our approach is the best solution to accelerate clean aviation at scale. Congratulations to everyone on our team and all of our partners and stakeholders for the collective effort that brought us to this monumental day in history."

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