ZeroAvia Inc, the company developing hydrogen powered electrical solutions has received one of two recently announced purchase of Dornier 228 aircrafts. The team behind ZeroAvia aims to utilize the 19 seater commuter aircraft for developing their hydrogen fuel cell powertrain.
The Dornier 228-200 airframe comes with two turboprop engines which will be replaced with two 600KW units of the company’s hydrogen-electric powertrain. The fuel tanks will be converted for storing hydrogen, holding up to 100kg compressed gaseous hydrogen which will allow to fly up to 500 nautical miles. ZeroAvia aims to have the conversion ready with a commercial offering by 2024.
The plane with serial number 8046 was previously in use by Aurigny Air Services serving short haul routes to and from the channel island Guernsey.
The 19 seater conversion is part of their HiFlyer II program. Within HiFlyier I, the company converted a single engine to electric flight with a battery and hydrogen fuel-cell powered powertrain. Learnings from HiFlyer I will be applied to HyFlyer II.