Aircraft
Beyond Aero Completes First H2 Bizjet Wind Tunnel Tests
Scale model testing to help validate hydrogen-electric business jet design
BYA-1 scale model in wind tunnel
Testing was conducted at speeds of up to 288 kilometres an hour and focused on the aircraft’s unique external gaseous hydrogen tank configuration © Beyond Aero

Beyond Aero completed the first wind tunnel tests of its BYA-1 hydrogen-electric business jet as it approaches the end of the program's preliminary design review, it said on January 19. According to the French start-up, tests with a one-eighth-scale model were conducted at the German-Dutch Wind Tunnels Low-Speed Facility at Marknesse in the Netherlands over five weeks in the fourth quarter.

The Toulouse, France-based company is developing a product it bills as “the first electric business jet powered by hydrogen propulsion,” focusing on fuel cell technology and gaseous hydrogen to transport six passengers up to 1,500 kilometers (800 nm).