Piasecki Aircraft Corporation says it is on track to start flight testing a full-scale prototype of its hydrogen-powered PA-890 helicopter in 2023 as it aims for type certification by the end of 2024. During last week’s Vertical Flight Society H-2 Aero Symposium & Workshop in California, the company’s president and CEO, John Piasecki, said it is working on a subscale demonstrator model as well as plans to demonstrate the fuel cell technology being developed for the program by HyPoint and a full-scale operational ground test stand.
The planned flight demonstration of a subscale version of Piasecki’s hydrogen powertrain will involve fitting an 80-kW high-temperature proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell provided by its partner HyPoint. These will be integrated into an existing coaxial helicopter in what the company says will be the first manned VTOL flight using hydrogen fuel cells.
