Joby Aviation’s Hydrogen-Electric Air Taxi Completes Historic 523-Mile Test Flight

US based electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi service Joby Aviation this week successfully flew its hydrogen-electric demonstrator air taxi for 523 miles (841. Surprisingly, the only by-product that was emitted during the flight of this product, was water vapor only.

Historic Flight

Source

It was a Intrastate flight operating from and to Marina, California done on June 24. This appears to be the initial scenario of the practical experimental advance in the field of Vertical Take Off and Landing forms of aircraft incorporating liquid hydrogen. A pre-production aircraft of Joby’s battery-electric eVTOL design was substituted with power by a fuel cell and came with a 40 kg liquid hydrogen fuel tank for the mentioned aim and accomplishment of this milestone event. This tank individual feeds six electric motors, every carrying a propeller; she also keeps a few batteries to offer bonus power the time of take off as well as touchdown. Remarkably, at the end of the flight, it still has only ten percent of its hydrogen fuel left of the aircraft.

Innovation and Vision

First, Joby Aviation used battery electric vehicles in aerial transportation for urban use. But in 2021 , the company bought hydrogen-electric flight pioneer H2FLY that has designed the hydrogen fuel cell system used in the demonstrator aircraft. Therefore, Joby’s vision is that its hydrogen-electric aircraft will fly regionally while the battery-electric urban flight operations will take place.

A Cleaner Future

“Air travel is crucial to the advancement of society; however, societies have to look for ways to make flying greener,” declared Joby’s creator and chief executive officer JoeBen Bevirt. “As we configure battery-electric air taxi to revolutionize how people and goods move around cities, we are equally eager to be developing a technology enabler that could reshape regional transport using hydrogen-electric planes. Imagine flying directly from San Francisco to San Diego, or Boston to Baltimore or Nashville to New Orleans, without having to go to an airport and not emitting any thing but water from the plane. That kind of world, we are now closer

When asked, Bevirt pointed out that these efforts put into the battery-electric aircraft designing, testing and certification will enable commercialisation for the hydrogen-electric aircraft. He stressed that both types of aircraft will share also the landing pads, the operations teams, and the Joby ElevateOS, a commercial operational support software.

Another giant in advanced sustainable aviation is Joby Aviation that is seeking to redefine the rules of both urban and regional mobility with electric and hydrogen-electric vertical take off and landing aircraft.

References:

• Executes regional-range test flight with hydrogen-electric air taxi