Joby Aviation has flown its eVTOL aircraft with a hydrogen-electric propulsion system developed by its German subsidiary H2Fly. The company announced on July 11 that in June its demonstrator aircraft flew 523 miles, which is more than five times the range of the aircraft powered by its standard battery-electric powertrain.
According to Joby, the flight demonstrates the potential for regional eVTOL air services connecting cities, rather than simply flying in and around metropolitan areas. The company said it believes this was the first forward flight of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen.
The pre-production prototype aircraft was fitted with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell system. Joby said the demonstrator, which has already flown more than 25,000 miles with the battery-electric powertrain, landed with 10% of its hydrogen fuel load remaining.
An engineering team from Joby has been working with colleagues at Stuttgart-based H2Fly for several years. In September 2023, H2Fly set a record when it flew the world’s first piloted flight of a conventional liquid hydrogen-electric aircraft using fuel cell technology.
The demonstrator aircraft features a fuel tank designed and built by Joby, which stores up to 40 kilograms of liquid hydrogen, and a smaller number of batteries than the standard eVTOL model. The hydrogen is fed into a fuel cell system developed by H2Fly to produce electricity, water, and heat. The electricity powers the six motors on the Joby aircraft, with the batteries providing additional power, mainly during takeoff and landing.
Joby has not specifically said when it might use hydrogen propulsion on production aircraft but confirmed that it is part of its “future technology roadmap,” along with its recent acquisition of autonomous flight technology specialist Xwing. The work on hydrogen propulsion is partly supported by Joby’s work with the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program.
“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,” said Joby’s founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “The world is closer than ever and the progress we’ve made towards certifying the battery-electric version of the aircraft gives us a real head start as we look ahead to making hydrogen-electric flight a reality.”
According to Bevirt, hydrogen-powered eVTOL vehicles could operate with the same vertiports being developed for battery-electric aircraft, and using Joby’s ElevateOS software.