The ZeroAvia and Alaska Airlines partnership will retrofit a 76-seater with zero-emissions tech
On a retrofit project, hydrogen-electric plane company ZeroAvia and Alaska Airlines partner to bring zero-emissions technology to a 76-passenger airplane. By 2025, the companies hope to have 300-mile range, 9-19 seat electric jet operations working commercially. By 2027, they already have their sights set on 700-mile ranged flights aboarding 40-80 passengers.
The Bombardier Q400 regional turboprop, also known as the Dash 8-400, that Alaska Airlines promised ZeroAvia a year and a half ago in the ZeroAvia And Alaska Airlines partnership was finally handed to them during a ceremony in Washington state that also featured Governor Jay Inslee and US Representative Suzan DelBenem. ZeroAvia also took the opportunity to debut their “HyperCore” motor modules.
They displayed a propeller spin with no emissions attached to its own 15-ton HyperTruck rig. A 1.8MW modular electric motor system made up of two 900kW HyperCore motor modules was used in the prototype. These motors ran at 20,000 rpm, which is the same speed as a conventional turbine engine, and they produced an outstanding 15kW/kg of motor power density.
The 76-seat Dash 8-400 electric jet may one day be successfully propelled due to ZeroAvia’s modular HyperCore system design, which enables zero-emission aviation applications ranging from 900kW to 5.4MW.
“Demonstrating this size of aircraft in flight, powered entirely by novel propulsion, would have been unthinkable a few years ago,” stated ZeroAvia founder and CEO Val Miftakhov. “Launching this program puts us on track for a test flight next year, and accelerates our progress toward the future of zero-emission flight for Alaska Airlines and for the world at large.”
We expect the ZeroAvia and Alaska Airlines partnership to launch the zero-emissions Dash 8-400 as early as next year.