Joby Aviation tests eVTOL aircraft powered by hydrogen

Joby's engineering team has collaborated with Stuttgart-based H2Fly for several years. In September 2023, H2Fly achieved a milestone with the world's first piloted flight of a conventional liquid hydrogen-electric aircraft using fuel cell technology.

The demonstrator features a Joby-designed fuel tank storing up to 40 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and fewer batteries than standard models. Hydrogen is fed into an H2Fly-developed fuel cell system producing electricity to power six motors on the aircraft, with batteries providing extra power during takeoff and landing.

While Joby hasn't specified when it will use hydrogen propulsion in production aircraft, it confirmed it's part of their "future technology roadmap," alongside acquiring autonomous flight technology from Xwing. Their work on hydrogen propulsion is supported partly by collaboration with the U.S. Air Force's Agility Prime program.

JoeBen Bevirt, Joby's founder and CEO, stated: “Imagine being able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, Boston to Baltimore, or Nashville to New Orleans without the need to go to an airport and with no emissions except water.” He added that progress toward certifying the battery-electric version gives them an advantage in making hydrogen-electric flights a reality.

Bevirt also mentioned that hydrogen-powered eVTOL vehicles could operate at vertiports being developed for battery-electric aircraft using Joby's ElevateOS software.