Pressures we need them at. what you end up with is an aeroplane that can t have any passengers in. this is the challenge faced by zeroavia, one of several companies working to make hydrogen powered flight a reality. they retrofit existing planes with hydrogen engines. the company had several successful test flights with this plane last year. in the original frame, we would be able to fly about 19 passengers. it looks like a lot of kit in there. how would you fit in 19 people? yeah, so in the retrofitted configuration, it will be about a dozen people. daniela is one of the engineers working on the engine. actually, the fuel cells are this one. the power is created in these small layers. so you have to build up your layers to create the power to take off an aircraft.
That means that we need often very large, very heavy tanks, because they need very thick walls to deal with the incredibly high pressures we need them at. what you end up with is an aeroplane that can t have any passengers in. this is the challenge faced by zeroavia, one of several companies working to make hydrogen powered flight a reality. they retrofit existing planes with hydrogen engines. the company had several successful test flights with this plane last year. in the original frame, we would be able to fly about 19 passengers. it looks like a lot of kit in there. how would you fit in 19 people? yeah, so in the retrofitted configuration, it will be about a dozen people. daniela is one of the engineers working on the engine. actually, the fuel cells are this one. the power is created in these small layers.
Into this technology to get something out? zeroavia has the backing of the uk government and big investors and has over 2,000 pre orders from airlines. so there seems to be significant belief in hydrogen despite all of the challenges. but what i really want to know is. are we going to be able to jet off to spain anytime soon in a hydrogen plane? history shows that you need to start small and grow big. and that growth would take a while. but if this could be scaled to the largest of planes, then the difference to emissions would be jumbo. you know, it sounds like, if they can get it right, hydrogen planes could be a massive deal. yeah. it s as much about the infrastructure, though. they ve got a lot to do. right, 0k, noted. 0k, we re going from the air to the sea now. you might not think of the world s oceans as a great source of green
Needs to be certified. we need to provide the hydrogen infrastructure to the, uh, to the aircraft. zeroavia has a plan for that. in its vision, hydrogen would be produced on site at airports using renewable energy before being processed and transported out to the plane. but what about the cost of all this? at the moment, liquid hydrogen is significantly more expensive than conventionaljet fuel, but backers of hydrogen planes believe it will eventually become cheaper than traditional flight. zeroavia isn t the only company racing to reimagine air travel, though. aerospace giants like airbus and boeing are also developing hydrogen planes. but there are still questions over how sustainable they ll actually be. we re going to be using some fairly exotic materials that are very energy intensive to arrive at. what energy are you using to build the fuel cell? what materials are you using? how much energy are we sinking
We re going to be using some fairly exotic materials that are very energy intensive to arrive at. what energy are you using to build the fuel cell? what materials are you using? how much energy are we sinking into this technology to get something out? zeroavia has the backing of the uk government and big investors and has over 2,000 pre orders from airlines. so there seems to be significant belief in hydrogen despite all of the challenges. but what i really want to know is. are we going to be able to jet off to spain anytime soon in a hydrogen plane? history shows that you need to start small and grow big. and that growth would take a while. but if this could be scaled to the largest of planes, then the difference to emissions would be jumbo. you know, it sounds like, if they can get it right, hydrogen planes could be a massive deal. yeah.