In an ideal relay between past and future, there has been in recent days the last act of a legendary aircraft, the Boeing 747, the Jumbo Jet, and the first flight of a hydrogen passenger planethe prototype of a British startup.
Obviously, all attention went to the Boeing 747, because the Queen of the Skies, as she is nicknamed, has made the history of contemporary aviation for over half a century. The first 747 took off a few months before the 1969 moon landing. Since then non-stop intercontinental flights have become normal and also relatively cheap thanks to the fact that the plane had 400 seats. Obviously many things have changed in recent years, other models have arrived on the market, and most of the 747s still flying are now destined to carry parcels, not passengers (apart from the model intended for travel by the president of the United States, Air Force One). The latest model, which left the factory on 31 January amid applause and tears, will also be destined for cargo.
In the meantime at a small UK airport the expected took off hydrogen prototype of Zero Avia, a startup that aims to bring the first 19-seat planes to market in 2025. The goal is challenging: to decarbonise flights, which are responsible for 3% of all polluting emissions with projections of doubling them in 2050. A tough challenge because planes consume a lot of fuel (kerosene, derived from petroleum) and they must be as light as possible. Zero Avia, which has Bill Gates among its investors, is betting on green hydrogen with a mechanism that combines hydrogen with oxygen in the air, producing electricity and releasing water.
The first flight, on January 20, lasted about ten minutes. It may seem little but the first historic flight in history of the Wright brothers, on December 17, 1903, lasted just 12 seconds. And it changed the world.