ZeroAvia’s Dornier 228 aircraft has been retrofitted with a prototype hydrogen-electric powertrain, meaning the firm can now begin the first test flights of its 600kW hydrogen-electric powertrain.
The 19-seat twin-engine aircraft has been retrofitted in an engineering testbed configuration to incorporate ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric engine powering the propellor on its left wing, operating alongside a single Honeywell TPE-331 stock engine on the right to allow for redundancy if something should go wrong.
When test flights begin in January, the Dornier 228 testbed is expected to become “the largest aircraft to ever fly using a hydrogen-electric powertrain,” ZeroAvia said.
Reducing carbon emissions from the aviation sector is notoriously difficult, with many environmental campaigners and experts arguing that there is no choice but to reduce flying in order to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
Most efforts to reduce emissions at present are focused on...