Artistic rendering of a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet. Image: ZeroAvia
American Airlines is taking a flyer onhydrogen-electric engines.
The airline entered into a conditional purchase agreement with hydrogen fuel cell aviation startup ZeroAvia for 100 of them, intended to power regional jets with near-zero in-flight emissions.
Why it matters: American sees ZeroAvia's engines as a potential game-changer for powering its regional flights.
This is its first engine order from ZeroAvia, in which the airline has been investing since 2022.
Zoom in: ZeroAvia is developing hydrogen-electric, or fuel cell-powered, engines for commercial aircraft that it says can reduce in-flight emissions to close to zero, other than water vapor.
It is developing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine for a Dash 8 Q400 propeller aircraft in Everett, Washington, in conjunction with Alaska Airlines.
Between the lines: Its agreement with American, though, would have ZeroAvia produce hydrogen electric propulsion systems to replace turbofan jet engines, which no one has yet done.
