Trial flights of an innovative all-electric cargo aircraft are now underway in New Zealand.
The project is being run by the country’s flag carrier, Air New Zealand, in collaboration with US aerospace manufacturer BETA Technologies.
The two-pilot ALIA CX300 aircraft designed by BETA can carry around 200 cubic feet (5.6 cubic meters) of cargo with a max range of around 215 nautical miles (400km).
It uses 65kW chargers that allow it to recharge in 90 minutes, which means it’s capable of making multiple daily trips on different routes.
A four-month trial program is currently underway which involves flights on various routes and in various conditions to and from airports in Hamilton, Wellington and Blenheim.
“Sixty percent of regional flights in New Zealand are less than 350 kilometres, and around 85 percent of our electricity is renewable – the perfect laboratory for next generation aircraft,” said Air New Zealand Chief Executive Nikhil Ravishankar.
“While new propulsion technologies are still developing, BETA is leading the way and we’re witnessing a true technology step-change.”
Meanwhile, down on the country’s South Island, a group of engineering and aerospace companies are working on a new hydrogen fuel tank design to be trialed on planes at Christchurch Airport.
“By bringing all the elements together for the first time on site at an international airport – producing, storing and dispensing liquid hydrogen into composite aviation tanks as fuel – we’re proving that liquid hydrogen technologies for aircraft are now available and that hydrogen-electric flight will soon be a reality in Australasia,” said Christopher Boyle, managing director of hydrogen systems engineering company Fabrum.
Cost concerns have long inhibited the adoption of hydrogen as a serious alternative airline fuel. However, Bob Criner of Stralis, an Australian company partnering with Fabrum on the project, says the new technology will result in a solution six times lighter than current equipment with 10 times the range of electric aircraft at half the cost of a similar fossil fuelled flight.
