Joby make landmark 523-mile hydrogen-electric flight
Joby Aviation have announced that it has successfully flown a hydrogen-electric air taxi demonstrator for 523 miles over California, producing no emissions other than water.
The Vertical take off and landing aircraft has already completed more than 25,000 miles of testing with a battery-electric aircraft powertrain, before being equipped with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank, which stores up to 40 kilograms of liquid hydrogen, alongside a reduced mass of batteries. Hydrogen is fed into a fuel cell system, designed and built by H2FLY, to produce electricity, water, and heat. The electricity produced by the hydrogen fuel cell powers the six electric motors on the aircraft, with the batteries providing additional power primarily during take-off and landing.’
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO, Joby, said: ‘Traveling by air is central to human progress, but we need to find ways to make it cleaner. With our battery-electric air taxi set to fundamentally change the way we move around cities, we’re excited to now be building a technology stack that could redefine regional travel using hydrogen-electric aircraft.
‘Imagine being able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, Boston to Baltimore, or Nashville to New Orleans without the need to go to an airport and with no emissions except water. That world is closer than ever, and the progress we’ve made towards certifying the battery-electric version of our aircraft gives us a great head start as we look ahead to making hydrogen-electric flight a reality.
‘The vast majority of the design, testing and certification work we’ve completed on our battery-electric aircraft carries over to commercializing hydrogen-electric flight. In service, we also expect to be able to use the same landing pads, the same operations team, and Joby’s ElevateOS software that will support the commercial operation of our battery-electric aircraft.’
