ZeroAvia has announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has published the special conditions for the company’s electric engine as a Final Rule in the Federal Register.
This represents a major step towards type certification of ZeroAvia’s electric propulsion system and wider hydrogen-electric powertrain.
The special conditions advance ZeroAvia’s readiness to progress through the certification process following the FAA issuing G1 and P1 issue papers last year. It caps off a run of milestones with the respective regulators overseeing the company’s certification projects, including the UK CAA awarding the company Design Organisation Approval in October last year.
Given the novelty involved in electric engines for aircraft, the special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the FAA Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by existing airworthiness standards. As the world’s only hydrogen-electric focused Design Organisation Approval OEM, ZeroAvia has demonstrated it has the maturity, processes, and procedures to provide confidence to regulators that it can comply with stringent requirements.
Val Miftakov, Founder and CEO, ZeroAvia, said: “Having special conditions for our electric propulsion system published by the FAA is an enormous achievement that underscores the aerospace maturity of our organisation and illuminates our path forward towards type certification. It’s rapid progress from both industry and regulators that bodes well for progressing the electric age of flight.”
ZeroAvia’s electric propulsion system (EPS) combines its proprietary 600kW motor and inverter technology and is an integral part of the company’s planned full hydrogen-electric powertrain for 10–20 seat commercial aircraft, the ZA600.
For the full powertrain, the EPS will be powered by multiple ZeroAvia SuperStack Flex 200kW fuel cell modules, and the company is now focused on advancing regulatory maturity of this power generation system to serve in the full powertrain, but also as a discrete product for UAV, eVTOL, and general aviation applications. The system is already being supplied to the defence sector and is in active discussions with prospective civil aviation-focused OEMs.
ZeroAvia has established unique, advanced testing capabilities to enable rapid testing of its own technology, as well as industry collaboration, including a 700kW dynamometer electric engine test rig, a segregated hydrogen fuel cell and thermal management system test environment, a hydrogen management system environment, and a state-of-the-art data acquisition setup.
The combination of design maturity, regulatory readiness, and in-house test capability provides ZeroAvia with the necessary posture to build upon existing regulatory milestones, with its current focus on the 200kW fuel cell power module.
ZeroAvia’s regulatory progress is one of a number of major bright spots for the development of hydrogen in aviation, including Airbus’s recent announcement that its 100-seat hydrogen-electric regional clean-sheet aircraft has reached TRL3, and also multiple large-scale electrolytic hydrogen production projects entering operation or Final Investment Decision.
Val Miftakhov concluded: “The fundamentals have not changed – electric aircraft are better aircraft with zero-emissions, less noise and better operating economics, and hydrogen is key to unlocking practical range and endurance. What we are seeing now is real momentum in terms of airframe development and fuel production. It’s the beginning of the transformation in earnest.”
