Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

ZeroAvia Completes Test Flight Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Passenger Airplane

Clean Technica: Last week, California based ZeroAvia completed the first ever test flight of a 6 passenger airplane powered solely by a hydrogen powered fuel cell. Previous test flights of the company’s fuel cell powertrain incorporated batteries because aviation people are highly risk adverse. Not only that, funding tends to dry up when airplanes fall out of the sky.

At its testing facility at Cranfield airport north of London — which just happens to be smack in the middle of the high tech area that has grown up around Formula One racing — ZeroAvia’s test bed, a 6 passenger Piper Malibu, flew for 8 minutes on fuel cell power alone. The airplane reached a height of 1,000 feet and an airspeed of 100 knots (115 mph).

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