10 minutes, 6 hours
Two aeroplanes fly high. Mid-January saw the largest aircraft in the world back in the air again – higher and for longer than ever before. Research into hydrogen as a fuel for aviation has also reached a milestone, with the largest hydrogen aircraft to date.
Just before Christmas ZeroAvia received permission from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority to carry out hydrogen-electric test flights. The days of the holiday season between Christmas and the new year were thus presumably not as restful for the staff of the British-American company as it was for most others, as its new test aircraft, a converted Dornier 228, was in the air – and stayed there for ten minutes – for the first time no less than a month later, on 19 January.
In the process, a great deal of data was collected in and over Cotswold GBA airport in western England, data that can be used in the further development of this technology of the future, promoted by the UK.
The aircraft, which is 16.5 m long and has been made in versions to seat 19 passengers or carry approximately 2 t of cargo, practised taxiing and takeoff, and circled the aerodrome before landing again.
The engine that was mounted on its left wing, whose 600 kW was more than twice as powerful as that of the PA-46 Malibu, which was tested from September 2020 on, was equipped with ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-powered electric motor. In this test configuration the hydrogen-electric powertrain consists of two fuel cells, with lithium-ion battery packs supporting peak power during takeoff and also providing additional redundancy for test safety. In a commercial configuration, the system will also access external storage sources.
The company informed the public that every element of the systems had worked as expected. ZeroAvia said that it is now working on a certifiable configuration of the unit, in order to offer commercial use of the technology by 2025.
American Airlines has already secured an option for 100 engines. ZeroAvia simultaneously wants to scale up the technology for aircraft with up to 90 seats and extend it to narrow-bodied test aircraft over the next ten years.
Stratolaunch with big plans too
Stratolaunch is also pursuing pretty big plans. On 13 January the US company announced that its Roc launch platform, the largest aircraft in history with a wingspan of 117 m, has completed its second carrier flight. The ninth flight in total set two records – it lasted six hours and attained a maximum altitude of 22,500 ft.
Primary test objectives for the unit built by Scaled Composites included flying outside the immediate area of the Mojave Air and Space Port for the first time, and evaluating the separation environment for the test aircraft carried (3.6 t). This is scheduled to be launched at hypersonic speed before the middle of this year.