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Cessna 208 Caravan and 208B Grand Caravan

Charlotte Bailey

ZeroAvia has been awarded a €21.4 million ($24.6 million) grant from the EU Innovation Fund to support plans to introduce zero-emission aircraft in Norway. This European initiative, announced on November 6, will support the retrofit of 15 Cessna Grand Caravan airframes alongside the establishment of the necessary hydrogen ground infrastructure. 
The hydrogen-electric powertrain developer will now work with airports and authorities under the newly-formed Project ODIN (Operations to Decarbonize Interconnectivity in Norway). This, explained ZeroAvia, “aims to validate the technical performance and economic case for utilising hydrogen-electric aircraft in commercial operations, with a view to catalyzing further adoption in Norway, across the EU and further afield.”
The single-engine Cessna Caravan turboprop has long been ZeroAvia’s first commercial retrofit candidate for its 600-kilowatt ZA600 power generation system. According to the company, this&nbsp;is the world’s first fuel cell module designed to meet [EASA specifications] CS-E and CS-23 certification requirements. 
Ambitions to earn a supplemental type certificate for modification and certification for the powertrain appear to have slipped to beyond 2025. However, ZeroAvia said that, having already flight-tested a prototype system on a Dornier 228 testbed,&nbsp;it is now ground testing its final design for certification. The California-based company’s larger two-megawatt ZA2000 system, being developed concurrently, is expected to receive certification in 2027. 
Several freight operators have also announced their intention to operate a <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2025-05-13/cargo-operator-plans-fly-hydrogen-powered-caravan-aircraft">similarly retrofitted type</a>. These include cargo flight group RVL Aviation.&nbsp;
The Innovation Fund is financed by revenues received from the EU Emissions Trading System. Around €12 billion ($13.8 billion) has been awarded to over 200 projects across the European Economic Area since the scheme’s first call for proposals in 2020. ZeroAvia founder and CEO Mal Miftakhov described the funding call as “notoriously competitive,” concluding that Project ODIN will “set a phenomenal example by introducing a scaled network of hydrogen-electric aircraft operations.”
This sizeable EU funding comes shortly after ZeroAvia’s 2024 accounts (filed in September 2025) suggested that its UK subsidiary only had “sufficient liquidity to support operations through to Q1 2026.” At the time, ZeroAvia declined to comment on ongoing fundraising challenges, but added that it had “recently completed a full engine test facility and a unique liquid hydrogen testing area” at its research and development base at Kemble in the southwest of England.

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Cessna 208 Caravan and 208B Grand Caravan

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