ZeroAvia yesterday revealed that it has received its second 19-seat Dornier 228. The twin-engine will be based at the British-American hydrogen-electric outfit's Hollister, California headquarters and will help the company expand its United States base to test its ZA600 hydrogen-electric powertrains, which are expected to be certified by the FAA in 2024.

A presence on both sides of the Atlantic

Last summer, ZeroAvia confirmed that it was expanding its program to 19-seat aircraft and raised an additional $13 million in funding for large engine development. With this announcement, two Dornier 228 planes were expected to arrive as part of the HyFlyer II project backed by the government of the United Kingdom to target the development of a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. Thus, the initial 228 has been based at ZeroAvia's Kemble facility in the UK, and now the other one across the pond complements the overall R&D process.

ZeroAvia Aircraft
The 600 kW powertrain is expected to be certified within two years.

ZeroAvia CEO and founder Val Miftakhov recently told Simple Flying that the England-based unit has been going through ground tests ahead of obtaining permits from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. He highlighted that the US arrival will act as a demonstrator during this crucial stage.

“We've got several manufacturer's across all of our launch segment of sub-20 seat aircraft in the part 23 sector. We've got HAL in India, which is one of the type certificate holders for the Dornier 228 variants. We've got De Havilland Canada, the type certificate holder for the Dash 8, which is great because that's the backbone of turboprop regional aviation aircraft. We’ve also got De Havilland Canada' sister company, Viking, which is the type certificate holder for the Twin Otter. Lastly, we have Mitsubishi Heavy Industry regional jets division, which is a type certificate holder of the CRJ regional jet family. So, we've got all these partnerships in place.”

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Scaling up

With all these manufacturer collaborations, ZeroAvia will be able to gather plenty of data on the infrastructure side and address potential errors ahead of certification. This information will combine well with the partnerships on the airline side, with the likes of Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, and British Airways all heavily involved, looking to introduce hydrogen solutions by the time the next decade is in full swing.

N409VA Dornier
ZeroAvia will soon be testing its 19-seater aircraft. Photo: ZeroAvia

The advancement in California comes on the back of the announcement that ZeroAvia will develop hydrogen refueling systems at Californian Airports. It signed an MoU with ZEV Station to develop green hydrogen infrastructure on the ground.

Ahead of this, ZeroAvia will take around three to four months to convert its new Dornier 228 for the deployment of test flights. The firm will work on a hybrid engine configuration that will incorporate a hydrogen-electric powertrain and a conventional engine.

After the reconfiguration, the aircraft will demonstrate passenger, cargo, and industrial use cases. To optimize this stage, the Hollister site is expanding with a new 15,000 square foot hangar while hiring new staff.

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Just the beginning

With hydrogen tipped to be the genuine zero-emission solution for the aviation industry in the long term, ZeroAvia is covering great ground across both North America and Europe. The company already conducted the first hydrogen fuel cell-backed flight of a commercial plane two years ago, and it will be keen to demonstrate further abilities in this next chapter.

What are your thoughts about ZeroAvia’s initiatives? What do you make of the progress in the hydrogen space? Let us know what you think in the comment section.