New agreement with MHIRJ helps ZeroAvia hydrogen-electric regional jet plans gain ground

ZeroAvia (Hollister, Calif., U.S. and Kemble, U.K.) has expanded its agreement with maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company MHI RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) signed by both parties and the end of 2021 to deliver hydrogen-electric engines for regional jets. As part of the collaboration, MHIRJ will provide engineering services, aircraft integration, and its industry renowned OEM experience to support the certification of ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric powertrain for retrofit onto airframes in the regional jet markets.

ZeroAvia claims that it is already well advanced in plans to certify its ZA600, 600-kilowatt powertrain for smaller, 10-20 seat aircraft, with entry into service planned for 2024. Concurrently, the company is working on ZA2000, a 2-5 megawatt modular powertrain which targets support for 40-80 seat turboprops by 2026. The ZA2000RJ powertrain will expand this technology to enable passengers to fly in zero-emission regional jets as early as the late 2020s.

This agreement places the CRJ Series aircraft as a frontrunner for the earliest operations using true zero-emission engines. More than 2,000 CRJ Series aircraft have been built since the launch of the program in order to effectively establish itself as the backbone of regional aviation in the U.S.

“There are hundreds of CRJ Series aircraft in daily operation across North America, transporting millions of passengers,” Val Miftakhov, CEO and founder of ZeroAvia, says. “All these flights can and should be zero emission well before the end of this decade. This agreement is a giant step forward in delivering hydrogen-electric engines to the regional jet segment.”

The agreement is reported to be the first for MHIRJ’s Aerospace Engineering Centre (AEC) in the hydrogen propulsion field. MHIRJ’s AEC aims to provide engineering, design and certification services to third parties using the wide expertise and experience of its engineering team.

This announcement with MHIRJ closely follows ZeroAvia’s expansion of its Hollister location in California and a deal with Shell for hydrogen supply, as well as the opening of a new facility at Paine Field in Washington State in Jan. 2022.