Get the latest tech news

Hydrogen-powered aircraft has first commercial order

An Australian aviation startup on a mission to decarbonise air travel is developing a battery that could power a small aircraft to travel 1,000 km using hydrogen, and it already has a customer.

By retrofitting existing drones with electric and hydrogen fuel cell systems, the Aerostructures Innovation Research (AIR) Hub team has been able to develop flight data for hydrogen-powered aircraft. AMSL Aero is also developing its own uncrewed aircraft after receiving a $3 million grant from the federal government's Cooperative Research Centre program to build a remotely piloted version of Vertiia to be used for aerial firefighting. In March, Airservices Australia announced plans to develop a digital air traffic management system after an analysis projected the growth of drone and uncrewed aircraft would reach 60 million annual flights by 2043.

Get the Android app