Aviation accounts for about 3% of world greenhouse fuel emissions, and the trade is rising rapidly. Whereas airways and a few trade teams have pledged to chop emissions to net-zero by 2050, the calls for of flying are tough to realize with out fossil fuels.
Hydrogen gasoline cells symbolize one doable route that some corporations hope may also help scale back emissions from the aviation trade, however to make vital cuts, the know-how would should be scaled as much as energy comparatively giant plane.
“That is placing us straight on the trail to business launches,” stated Val Miftakhov, ZeroAvia founder and CEO, in a press convention saying the outcomes of the check flight.
ZeroAvia has raised over $140 million in funding from buyers, together with United Airways and American Airways, in addition to Breakthrough Vitality Ventures, Invoice Gates’s power enterprise fund. The corporate has additionally acquired over 1500 pre-orders from clients for its hydrogen fuel-cell programs, based on Miftakhov.
The startup has been flying check flights for a number of years with smaller planes, with various levels of success. In 2021, one was forced to land and the plane was damaged after the battery backup system was shut off. With solely the hydrogen gasoline cells operating, the airplane misplaced energy to its electrical motors.
The battery system supported the current January 2023 check flight of the 19-seat airplane, which was delayed from summer 2022. Batteries equipped about 50% of the facility to the left facet of the plane for the entire flight, with the hydrogen gasoline cell system supplying the opposite 50%.
