American company ZeroAvia has announced the successful completion on September 23 the world’s first flight of a commercial aircraft on hydrogen cells. We are talking about a modified 6-seat airplane, Piper M, which, due to modernization, was the largest of the existing “hydrogen” aircraft.
The test flight of the Piper M – part funded by the British government project HyFlyer on the creation of mass-produced hydrogen-electric motor, suitable for existing and new aircraft, as well as for the development of appropriate hydrogen infrastructure.
As reported in ZeroAvia, the technology will be scaled in a short time, and after three years will be put into operation 10 and 20-seater aircraft by 2030 – 50 and 100-seater, and by 2040 – 200 domestic airliner with a range of up to 5560 km.
The next and final stage of testing the six-seat aircraft should be flying at a distance of up to 400 km with zero emissions from the airport on the Orkney Islands North of Scotland.
Concurrently with the development of the power unit, ZeroAvia created ecosystem refueling hydrogen fuel at the airport of Cranfield, which is a pilot version of the future infrastructure.
Source — ZeroAvia
