Washington state is investing another $350,000 in hydrogen propulsion system developer ZeroAvia, Governor Jay Inslee said Monday at the Paris Airshow. The additional funding will support the expansion of ZeroAvia’s research and development activities at Paine Field, an airport located in Snohomish County, Washington.
The investment from Washington State’s Department of Commerce follows another $350,000 award it granted to ZeroAvia in early 2022 to support the opening of its new research and development facility at Paine Field.
ZeroAvia, which maintains headquarters in California and in the U.K., uses the new Paine Field facility to retrofit a De Havilland Dash 8-400 twin turboprop with its ZA2000 hydrogen fuel cell-based propulsion system. Alaska Airlines donated the 76-seat Q400 to ZeroAvia and delivered it to Paine Field in early May.
ZeroAvia says it expects to begin flight tests with the hydrogen-powered Dash 8 in 2024. In January the company began a flight test campaign with a Dornier 228 technology demonstrator in Moses Lake, Washington. For that testbed, ZeroAvia replaced one of the aircraft’s turboprops with a 600-kilowatt ZA600 hydrogen-electric engine.
