While most eVTOL aircraft developers have committed to either purely battery-electric or hybrid powertrains, Alaka’i Technologies believes that hydrogen fuel cells offer the best solution for sustainable, emissions-free air transportation. The company is developing a four-passenger, hydrogen-powered eVTOL aircraft called Skai that it says will boast an initial range of 200 miles. A subsequent larger version of the aircraft will be able to fly twice as far, Hugh Kelly, head of marketing at Alaka’i, told AIN.
Alaka’i, which unveiled the Skai concept in 2019, has already built three full-scale prototypes of the multicopter vehicle and has been conducting routine hover flight tests for the past few years at its hangar facilities at Minute Man Air Field, a small airport near Boston, where the company has set up a liquid hydrogen fueling station. While Alaka’i isn’t committing to a date for entry into service, the company has begun the FAA type certification process with the submission of its G-1 issue paper. “We expect to be done with G-2 later this year,” Kelly said, “and then we'll do G-3 and G-4 and hopefully be into the full inspections phase and all the testing next year, and that usually is a nine- to 18-month process.”
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