Joby Aviation has successfully flown a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-electric air taxi demonstrator 523 miles, with water as the only by-product. The aircraft, which takes off and lands vertically, builds on Joby’s successful battery-electric air taxi development program, and demonstrates the potential for hydrogen to unlock emissions-free, regional journeys that don’t require a runway.
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The vast majority of the design, testing and certification work we’ve completed on our battery-electric aircraft carries over to commercializing hydrogen-electric flight. In service, we also expect to be able to use the same landing pads, the same operations team, and Joby’s ElevateOS software that will support the commercial operation of our battery-electric aircraft.
—JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO, Joby
The landmark test flight, believed to be the first forward flight of a vertical take off and landing aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen, was completed last month using a converted Joby pre-production prototype battery-electric aircraft fitted with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell system. It landed with 10% of its hydrogen fuel load remaining.
The world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial passenger ferry will start operating on San Francisco Bay as part of plans to phase out diesel-powered vessels and reduce planet-warming carbon emissions, California officials said Friday, demonstrating the ship.
The 70-foot catamaran called the MV Sea Change will transport up to 75 passengers along the waterfront between Pier 41 and the downtown San Francisco ferry terminal starting July 19, officials said. The service will be free for six months while it’s being run as part of a pilot program.
Because of the bulk of hydrogen and the expense of hydrogen fuel pumps, I see the biggest win being for short-haul cargo trucks, ferries, and maybe buses. Charging infrastructure is so much cheaper to install and maintain than hydrogen* pumps and plumbing, and the energy overhead of pushing electrons around is far less than the effort of moving the smallest molecules.
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*Hydrogen requires much more expensive plumbing technology than do hydrocarbons.