A couple of months ago, a six-seater plane flew over California. In principle this is not relevant, besides the plane outside was like any other. But the interesting thing is inside, it is a plane that runs on hydrogen. It is the largest aircraft that has ever flown without the help of fossil fuels, say its creators, who want to market them from 2022.
ZeroAvia is the startup that is behind all this. The company focuses on the design of the hydrogen powered electric powertrain inside the plane. They have been testing the technology for the past year and it has finally been now when they have published their future plans. The idea is to supply the powertrain for use in airplanes with autonomy of 800 kilometers and space for 20 passengers.
The company is committed to reducing emissions to zero in the air, but they know that getting that with an electric motor and batteries is not something viable right now. Instead, they bet on hydrogen cells, where they see greater advantages than in electricity supply.
The limit of this plane is 800 kilometers, which is the maximum they can get right now for an aircraft of up to 20 passengers. If they want to incorporate this system by hydrogen into larger planes they would have to change the way in which hydrogen is stored in the plane. He currently does it in carbon fiber cylinders with compressed hydrogen. For larger airplanes that require more consumption they would have to use liquid hydrogen, for which other certifications are required and there are greater risks of an accident occurring.
In spite of everything, from ZeroAvia they indicate that their system and the autonomy they achieve is ideal, since almost half of the global flights do not exceed 800 kilometers. They believe that airplanes equipped with their technology could be useful for domestic and short-haul flights.
End fossil fuels, by land, sea and air
It seems that the war against fossil fuels in means of transport only occurs in cars. The arrival of electric cars and the already established hybrid cars pose a future without road combustion vehicles. But what about the rest of the transport we use?
In the world of aviation, ZeroAvia has not been the first to offer an effective a priori alternative. A recent example is with Eviation Alice, the first 100% electric commercial aircraft that has a range of 1,000 kilometers. In this case, he has not yet taken the flight to see what he is capable of. We also found the promising Alaka'i, a flying taxi that uses hydrogen like ZeroAvia and promises 640 kilometers of autonomy.