Joby completes hydrogen-electric test flight
With water as the only by-product, Joby has flown its hydrogen-electric demonstrator 523 miles.
The landmark test flight, which Joby believes to be the first forward flight of a VTOL aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen, was completed last month using a converted pre-production prototype battery-electric aircraft fitted with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell system. The firm reported the aircraft landed with 10% of its hydrogen fuel load remaining. The converted aircraft previously completed more than 25,000 miles of testing as a battery-electric aircraft at Joby’s base in Marina, California.
JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO, Joby, said: “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.”
Bevirt confirmed that the majority of design, testing and certification work Joby has completed on its battery-electric aircraft will carry over to the hydrogen-electric version. He also said Joby expects to be able to use the same infrastructure, operations team and booking software for commercial operations.
Joby’s hydrogen demonstrator forms part of the firm’s future technology programme and is the result of several years of collaboration between Joby and H2FLY, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Stuttgart, Germany that Joby acquired in 2021.
The demonstrator features a liquid hydrogen fuel tank, designed and built in-house, which stores up to 40kg 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 extra power mainly during take-off and landing.
Jacob Wilson, (Acting) Branch Chief, AFWERX Agility Prime, said: “Agility Prime has been very supportive of hydrogen-powered aircraft development and testing as it aligns with the program’s goals to advance transformative vertical lift technologies and broader Department of Defense operational energy goals of energy substitution and diversification, and energy demand reduction.”
Meanwhile, Joby recently acquired Xwing, a US-based startup developing autonomous technology for aviation. Xwing has been flying autonomous aircraft since 2020, with 250 fully autonomous flights and more than 500 auto-landings completed to date, using its in-house developed Superpilot software.
