Hydrogen as fuel for airplanes large and small has been in the news lately, with Airbus unveiling three visual concepts for planes that would burn hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, and ZeroAvia completing a successful test flight of a modified 6-seat Piper powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
ZeroAvia, which earlier in the year successfully flew the same plane on battery power, says its short flight at Cranfield, England in a Piper M, was the world’s first fuel-cell-powered flight. The company says that without any new fundamental science, fuel-cell planes will be able to match distances and payloads of fossil-fuel aircraft. Its next goal is a 250-mile flight to the Orkney Islands before year’s end; that’s the equivalent of a flight from London to Edinburgh.
Airbus’s three concepts are part of its “ZEROe” initiative that calls for carbon-free commercial aircraft by 2035. Two are conventional: a jet that could carry 100-120 passengers 2000 miles and a turboprop that could fly 1000 miles with 100 passengers. The sexy option, however, is the blended wing design at the top, which is said to further reduce emissions by reducing drag.
