Interview:ZeroAvia CEO Val Miftakhov
IFA Comment: The challenges of hydrogen use are well known. In the air, at altitude, subject to all the environmental conditions that can be experienced, the use of hydrogen is doubly difficult. It is perilous not to apply the best available knowledge of airworthiness to solving the tough problems faced going from initial prototype demonstrators to commercial products. IFA promotes the acquisition of the new skills and training necessary to take on the practical use of hydrogen as an aviation fuel.
Hydrogen electric flight pioneer ZeroAvia has ambitions to become the Tesla of civil aviation. Jon Excell spoke to the firm’s founder and CEO Val Miftakhov
While no sector of industry is untouched by the push for net zero, civil aviation – still almost entirely reliant on fossil fuels – faces a steeper and more challenging path to decarbonisation than most. And in the face of this once in a generation challenge, a host of alternative technologies – and the disruptive innovators behind them – are attracting increasing levels of attention, interest and investment from the wider aerospace industry.
One such organisation is British-American hydrogen-electric aviation pioneer ZeroAvia which – since its launch in 2017 – has chalked off an eye-catching list of green flight milestones: from the installation of Europe’s first airport hydrogen pipeline to the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered flight of a commercial-grade aircraft.
Earlier this summer, The Engineer caught up with CEO and founder Val Miftakhov to find out what’s next for the company and get his views on how hydrogen could transform the sector.
