LuftCar plans to develop hydrogen fuel cell battery hybrid propulsion for AAM
LuftCar plans to develop Hydrob, a hydrogen fuel cell battery hybrid propulsion system with vertical thrust to lift up to 8500 lb gross vehicle weight and to cover distances up to 500 miles.
LuftCar will act as systems integrator to develop the propulsion system in the US, which will have high energy density and high power battery density, in partnership with Bosch Aviation and other automotive fuel cell companies.
LuftCar has decades of experience of building fuel cell systems and aircraft frames under LuftCar founder and CEO Santh Sathya, who had played a critical technical role in building 300 hydrogen fuel cell cars for Ford Motor Company.
Sathya says that LuftCar is innovating a system to convert an automotive fuel cell powertrain to aviation grade. Hydrob is expected to be lightweight and compact and can be packaged within airframes. The propulsion system also can work with onboard liquid or gas hydrogen.
LuftCar plans to develop and sell Hydrob to other advanced air mobility or eVTOL OEMs. Hydrob will create demand for hydrogen and will accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a major fuel carrier for the growing regional air mobility industry.
The company also plans to build hydrogen refueling infrastructure to create an ecosystem for LuftCars to operate from city to city. Last week, the US announced that it had opened applications for a $7 billion program to create regional clean hydrogen hubs.
Sathya commented: “We are delighted that the $7 billion hydrogen hub grants are official now and as part of our contribution to the hydrogen economy, we aim to build hydrogen refueling LuftPad vertiports as technology demonstrators.
“In addition to building the LuftCars and the Hydrobs, these LuftPads will also serve road transport and utility level storage in addition to air mobility.”
In early August, LuftCar partnered with Neurobotx to launch eVTOL docking and undocking for commercial, military and healthcare applications out of Orlando, Florida, having recently signed with BOSCH to develop eVTOL hydrogen fuel cell components.