Aircraft manufacturer Natilus and engine manufacturer ZeroAvia have teamed up to create a giant cargo drone powered by a hydrogen powertrain. The aircraft will be able to transport 3.8 tons of cargo over long distances.
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Earlier this year, aircraft manufacturer ZeroAvia flew a real airliner with a hydrogen-powered electric powertrain. This 19-seater Dornier 228 was then the largest aircraft to have ever flown with this type of engine. Today, the aircraft manufacturer Natilus is joining forces with ZeroAvia to design an aircraft specially optimized to fly on hydrogen. The architecture of Stolen Kona relies on a mixed canopy. Otherwise called hybrid wing, this shape mixes the fuselage with the wings, so that it looks like a single large flying wing. The aircraft is the subject of a quarter-scale demonstrator which is currently being tested at its Californian base in the United States. It will be equipped with the 600 kW hydrogen electric powertrain, the ZA-600, which just made its maiden flight on the Dornier 228. According to ZeroAvia, this engine should be operational and certified by 2025. With hydrogen, the mixed-wing architecture is perfectly adapted.
Flight test of the quarter-scale Kona demonstrator with its mixed-wing architecture.© Natilus
A giant cargo drone
The upside to this architecture is that the bulky hydrogen tanks can be spread out over the extended space of the flying wing. In addition to the scale model, the demonstrator being assembled will be a drone. And it will certainly be the largest aircraft of this type in the world. It will have a wingspan of 26 meters and could take to the air as early as 2024. It will not be an airliner, but a cargo drone. It will be able to take tracks with a length limited to 800 meters and will be able to transport 3.8 tonnes of freight over a distance of 1,667 km. With its mixed wing, the aircraft will be able to carry 60% more freight than a conventional aircraft of the same size. In addition to its ecological virtue, it will be able to reduce costs by half according to Natilus. The aircraft manufacturer also has even more ambitious cargo plane projects. He is working on two devices called Alisio and Nordes. They would be capable of transporting 60 and 100 tonnes of freight respectively over intercontinental distances. For its part, ZeroAvia is also thinking bigger, with the development of a 2.5 MW hydrogen powertrain, the launch of which is scheduled for 2026.
