Successful maiden flight of the Dornier 228 ZeroAvia
January 19, 2023
The maiden flight of the 19-seat Dornier 228, equipped with a full-size prototype hydrogen-electric propulsion unit on the left wing of the aircraft, took place successfully. The 10-minute flight is part of the HyFlyer II project which aims to develop a 600 kW powerplant for 9-19 seat zero-emission aircraft.
As already described in a previous post, the twin-engine aircraft has been adapted to incorporate the ZeroAvia hydrogen-electric engine on the left wing, while the right wing is equipped with a standard Honeywell TPE-331 engine. The hydrogen-electric powertrain comprises two stacks of fuel cells, with lithium-ion battery packs providing peak power support during liftoff and adding further redundancy for safe testing. The hydrogen tanks and fuel cell power generation systems are housed inside the cabin, whereas in the commercial configuration they would be located outside.
Source: ZeroAvia