The Californian aviation company Joby Aviation has made a technological leap towards clean hydrogen-electric air travel.
The Californian aviation company Joby Aviation has completed a non-stop flight of 523 miles (841,687 kilometers) with its “S4 eVTOL” air taxi, impressively demonstrating the potential of hydrogen in aviation. This is more than three times the range of batteries and a milestone for clean aviation.
Battery and hydrogen
The flight is a step towards the company’s goal of bringing battery-powered air taxis into the skies by 2025. However, hydrogen technology is nowhere near as mature as lithium batteries – especially in cryogenic liquid form, where the weight advantages are greatest. In 2021, Joby acquired the German hydrogen aircraft pioneer H2Fly, which completed the world’s first pilot flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft with its HY4 wing demonstrator in September 2023.
To set the new flight record, Joby used the liquid hydrogen refueling and fuel cell power system in its pre-production tilt-rotor eVTOL, which had previously completed 25,000 test miles (40,200 kilometers) on battery power. Because the fuel cell continuously supplied power to the aircraft’s six rotors, it was able to cover the 842-kilometer distance while emitting only water vapor. And when it landed, Joby said, it still had ten percent of the fuel left.
Airport no longer necessary
“Imagine being able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, Boston to Baltimore, or Nashville to New Orleans without having to use an airport and with no emissions other than water,” said Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “That world is closer than ever, and the progress we’ve made in certifying the battery-electric version of our aircraft gives us a big head start as we work toward making hydrogen-electric flight a reality.”
Joby converted the battery-electric eVTOL aircraft into its hydrogen-electric demonstrator in May and installed a cryogenic fuel tank that stores up to 40 kilograms of liquid hydrogen at a temperature of minus 251 degrees Celsius. The tank’s vacuum jacket keeps its surface at a safe ambient temperature.
The hydrogen powers the “H2F-175” fuel cell system developed by H2Fly, which undergoes an electrochemical reaction with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, water and heat. The electricity generated from the fuel cell is the primary power source for the six rotors during flight, with a small battery responsible primarily for takeoff and landing power. The fuel cell energy also charges this battery.
According to Bevirt, most of the design, testing and certification work done for its battery-powered eVTOL has been directly transferred to the commercialization of hydrogen flight. Joby plans to use the same landing pads, ElevateOS software and operations team for its hydrogen program as it does for commercial battery-electric operations.
The hydrogen units aim to offer regional point-to-point services without the need for an airport runway. The company believes a range of over 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) for a fixed-wing aircraft such as the H2Fly HY4 is realistic in the future.
Source: www.com-magazin.de
