Israeli company Urban Aero, designer of the CityHawk urban air vehicle, is working with HyPoint to design a testing regime that will lead to the use of hydrogen as fuel for the VTOL platform. HyPoint has developed a turbo air cooled fuel cell that, according to the company, will be perfect as a power pack for platforms like the City Hawk.
Nimrod Golan, the new CEO of Urban Aero, told Urban Air Mobility News that the two companies are working on a technology strategy “but we are still far from a demonstration,” he said. “Currently we are focused on completing the development of the CityHawk that will be powered by jet fuel”.
Metro Skyways, a subsidiary of Urban Aero, has released only very basic details about its CityHawk. According to the company, CityHawk will have the dimensions of a delivery van but no exposed rotors and is designed to be “road legal”. It is the only multiple passenger UAM eVTOL that has true capability to fly anywhere, land anywhere, says the company. While CityHawk will initially be powered by jet fuel to expedite the airframe’s certification under FAA FAR 27, following certification it will convert to 700 bar compressed hydrogen propulsion. Metro Skyways says the hydrogen/Fuel Cell Stack (FCS) powertrain technology will still meet all FAA/EASA requirements for a Category A take-off, manned, rotorcraft certified for commercial operations.
CityHawk incorporates a power train based on two separate FCS units. Should one of the FCS units fail, the aircraft will be able to descend to a safe landing using power from the remaining FCS, with supplemental power available via on-board batteries contained in two Power Conditioning Units (PCUs).
Source : Urban Aero is developing a hydrogen powered passenger VTOL – Urban Air Mobility News