|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Andrew Swanson fondly remembers the exciting day in 2013 when a strange flying object outside his window made him feel like City Hall was about to topple.
Swanson, Palo Alto’s airport manager, was relatively new to the position and he was in his office on the sixth floor, watching an aircraft with a wing the size of a jumbo jet gliding through the air after taking off from Moffett Field. Developed by the Swiss company Solar Impulse, the experimental aircraft aimed to prove that aviation powered purely by solar power is a viable proposition. Piloted by Swiss pilot André Borschberg, the single-seat aircraft passed through the Bay Area as part of a multi-stop tour.
“I screamed so loud because I was seeing this,” Swanson recalled this week. “They said, ‘Lucky we didn’t tip the building over,’ because all of the Fire Department and Public Works went to the window to watch these guys. It was amazing.”
The Solar Impulse team passed through the area again in 2016 as part of a more ambitious and record-setting endeavor: a trip around the world in a solar plane. The 40,000 km trip included a five-days-and-five-nights journey across the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Hawaii. The trip was more than just an adventure; it was a proof of concept. The message was: clean energy could fuel the global aviation industry.
This week, Borschberg and the Solar Impulse team returned to Palo Alto with a different venture – one that Swanson and others in Palo Alto believe could revolutionize the aviation industry and transform the operations at the local airport. Their new company, H55, is at the forefront of developing and selling electric aircraft to pilots around the globe, including in Palo Alto. While H55’s electric aircraft has yet to get FAA certification, a process that the company hopes will be completed within the next 18 months, it is already turning heads and winning fans in the local aviation community.
Over the past week, the H55 team has been stationed at a Palo Alto Airport hangar that is typically occupied by the Bay Area Urban Eagles, an organization that trains local youths in aviation skills. Its new plane looks nothing like the Solar Impulse aircraft that established the team’s global reputation. Its frame is manufactured by Bristell, a Czech manufacturer that produces dozens of models, and it looks like it would fit right in among the dozens of aircraft spread around the Palo Alto airport.
H55 took the B23 Energic model and outfitted it with an electric propulsion system that includes a single liquid-cooled motor, and an array of lithium batteries distributed in two packs. The system uses “agnostic charging,” which means it does not need a charger specifically designed for its aircraft, said Kristen Jurn, H55’s North America sales manager. A car charger would work.
“So really, the idea is that you’ll have chargers set up where they can come out, and you can effectively pull your airplane out, pull your car up, and charge,” Jurn said.
The plane’s most obvious distinguishing feature is sound. The H55 plane purrs while others roar. Bob Lenox, a long-time advocate for Palo Alto Airport, was among a select group of local pilots, dignitaries and potential customers, who have been flown around in the H55 plane over the past week. He called the experience “fantastic.”
“My observation is it’s just like an airplane, which is a good thing, but it’s a lot quieter,” Lenox said.
You know we’ve been talking for a while. … And now we’re here.
Andrew swanson, palo alto airport manager
Michael Mashack, pilot and founder of Bay Area Urban Eagles, had a similar take after his flight in the H55 plane.
“I could take my headset off and still have a conversation with the pilot,” Mashack said. “The blades make noise, but there’s no noise in the engine. That surprised me because I was expecting something different.”
Lenox, Mashack, Swanson and the H55 team were among the roughly two dozen frequent flyers who gathered at the Urban Eagles hangar on Tuesday morning to check out the Swiss team’s technology, talk shop and watch demonstration flights. Swanson said that airport managers from other Bay Area general aviation airports were scheduled to arrive later in the day.
Pilot Laurent Wülser, who was conducting the demo flights, said the goal of the team’s U.S. tour was to show the plane’s transition from a concept to a real, viable product. The team has been at it since April, going from Florida to Alabama and then Arizona and Nevada before its arrival to San Carlos and Palo Alto. After its Palo Alto tour concluded on June 25, the H55 team went on to its next steps in Wisconsin and New York.
“The idea is to show the flying aircraft. I mean, it’s not on the paper. It’s a real aircraft. It’s flying,” Wülser said before one of his Tuesday morning flights.
TAKING FLIGHT
The buzz inside the Urban Eagles hangar was building as a small crew of H55 employees began to push the parked B23 out of the hangar and toward the airport apron, past the parked planes and toward the airport’s single runway. Observers and airport officials walked out toward the runway.
After the H55 disappeared in the cloudy sky with Wülser and a passenger aboard, another plane, a Pilatus PC-12, taxied toward the runway. The Pilatus is among the largest and most popular aircraft at the airport. Even though it’s parked, the roar of its single engine forces the spectators to halt their conversations for several minutes.
While Swanson and other Palo Alto officials see electric planes like the electric B23 as the bright future of Palo Alto Airport, for many residents it’s the Pilatus that epitomizes the airport’s problematic present. That became evident last year, when airport officials unveiled a set of long-range alternatives for the small but busy airport, which included options that would have extended the airport’s 2,443-foot runway so that it could better meet Federal Aviation Administration’s guidelines, which recommend 3,500 feet.
Even though some options for the runway were more popular than others, the overall message was clear. While Public Works staff and airport advocates touted the benefits of Palo Alto Airport and made the case for a larger runway, most residents and all City Council members argued against expanding the airport’s footprint.
More than 1,000 people had signed a petition last year beseeching the city to prioritize environmental protection over airport upgrades. Residents who live close to the airport, many of whom live in neighboring communities of Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, also attended a heated meeting in summer 2024 to express their misgivings about all of the proposed expansion alternatives. The vast majority took issue with any plan that would bring flights – and, by extension, more noise and pollution – into their neighborhoods.
Aside from environmental protection, noise and pollution were the leading causes of discontent. Last September, dozens of residents attended a City Council study session on the airport plan to sound off on the plans. While some pilots advocated for expanding the runway and making other improvements, most residents who spoke urged the council not to expand the airport. Some called for the city to eliminate the airport altogether.
Local resident Sally Tomlinson posited at that meeting that most people who visit the area do so because they want to enjoy nature, not airplanes.
“My choice would be to remove the airport entirely, but I see the continuation of the airport within the current constraints as a compromise,” Tomlinson said.
The voices against the expansion proved persuasive as council members basically agreed to keep the airport’s footprint mostly unchanged. Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims was among those who stressed the need to protect the neighborhoods around Palo Alto Airport from the airport’s impact.
“As a matter of environmental justice, I believe we have an obligation today not to dump our noise and lead pollution on neighbors, particularly when those neighbors are members of population substantially underrepresented in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and overrepresented in the vicinity of the airport where the pollution is created,” Lythcott-Haims said.
For those who see great value in having a local airport, electric aircraft represent the perfect solution. Even though the city has been trying to lower pollution by offering unleaded fuel, Swanson told the council last fall that sales have been very slow.
Electric aviation, meanwhile, offers plenty of promise and Palo Alto is hoping to be at the forefront. In 2023, the city completed a $43-million reconstruction of the airport apron, a project that included laying the conduit to accommodate the electric aircraft of the future.
When you come to a place like Silicon Valley, with sustainability and the environmental side of it, you’ve got the technology side of it, you’ve got the disruptive business model side of it. This is what this place thrives on, right? Our project brings all this together
gregory blatt, co-founder of h55
And even though the city has temporarily halted its long-term plan for the airport following last year’s impassioned public feedback (the process will resume early next year, according to Public Works Director Brad Eggleston), it continues to explore other improvements that would not expand the facility’s footprint.
One such effort is the creation of an airport microgrid, a network that would rely in large part on energy from solar panels. The panels would be installed in parking areas throughout the apron. Public Works and Utilities Department staff have been analyzing what it would take to establish a microgrid. The city expects to release a report on the topic next month, Swanson said in an interview.
“We got the conduit now and now the next steps – dealing with the future of solar parking cover and the ability to hopefully have a microgrid so that the airport can be completely self-sustaining,” Swanson said.
Today, he retains much of the excitement he felt in 2013. He was excited to learn recently, for example, that the charging mechanism for the H55 plan is the same type used in cars.
“You know we’ve been talking for a while. And you know what? We really believe that we knew that we would get to this. And now we’re here,” Swanson said.
He is far from the only aviation enthusiast who is eager to take part in the emerging field. Pete Sandhu, an Atherton resident who learned to fly in Palo Alto and who currently runs Five Rivers Aviation, a fixed-base operator at Livermore Airport, sees the H55 plane as part of a broader trend toward electric aircraft, which also includes companies like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation.
Unlike H55, those companies specialize in eVTOL aircraft that are often referred to as “flying taxis” and that can take it the skies without runways (the acronym stands for “electric vertical takeoffs and landing,” connoting the aircraft’s ability to levitate like a helicopter).
Both Palo Alto Airport and Livermore have been planning for facilities that can accommodate Archer, Joby and other companies of this sort. Sandhu said he believes Palo Alto is well positioned to be at the forefront of that trend.
“Palo Alto is perfect for that. There’s no noise, there’s no there’s no pollution. And really, what would anybody have against an airport except noise and pollution? This solves both of those,” Sandhu said.
Sandhu also touted the technical aspects of the H55 motor, which he suggested will be more resilient and, in some ways, simpler than the traditional kind.
“The moving parts are subject to a lot of abuse, with lots of different metals that heat and cool at different rates and don’t fit right at different temperatures. You have to really baby your engines to make them last,” Sandhu said. “You know, as long as they’re designed to last. Whereas an electric motor, you can’t abuse it.
“I mean, it doesn’t matter. Shove power in, pull power out, it doesn’t mind. It’s just magnets and electric magnets. There’s not much to break.”
HIGH AMBITIONS
For all its promise, the H55 plane still has some hurdles to overcome and questions to answer. The B23 Energic may be green, sleek and modern, with an array of switches and two monitors in the cockpit displaying power and energy metrics, but it’s not cheap. It comes at a price of $431,000 and would-be purchasers are asked to make a $10,000 deposit and then wait until the FAA certification is complete. The planes are projected to be available in late 2027 or early 2028. After certification, the price is likely to be closer to $500,000, Jurn said.
Gregory Blatt, co-founder of H55, noted that it does have one advantage over traditional aircraft. Pilots don’t have to buy gas.
“When these guys go flying, they put a couple of hundred bucks to pay for gas,” Blatt said. “And we’re saying, ‘Don’t put the money for gas. Put it in the piggy bank. In two or three years, you’re going to come to me and you’re going to want new batteries and you’re getting better batteries. Every time you invest in gas, you’re not getting better gas.’ … So it’s a whole paradigm shift that technology introduces from a societal point of view, from an economic point of view, and from a flight operational point of view”
Even though the legacy of Solar Impulse is very much embedded in the DNA of H55, Blatt is quick to point out the differences between the two ventures. Blatt, who served as head of marketing at Solar Impulse, characterized that venture as “a flying laboratory where different companies and organizations came together to test their technology, to show what was possible at the time.” It was, in a sense, a research project that informed the current commercial one.
“What we did understand coming out of Solar Impulse was how to optimize the propulsion chain — meaning the motor and the batteries, all the energy management around that, and make it safe and secure so that we could bring it to a certified product,” Blatt said in an interview.
Blatt, who lives in Geneva, is well accustomed to European focus on sustainability when it comes to aviation. The Geneva airport, he noted, is in the center of the city and people are very well attuned to the need to minimize noise and pollution. But before H55 began its current tour, Blatt said he wasn’t sure how well its message of sustainability would play out in the United States, where oil and gas remain prevalent and bolstered by the White House administration.
“But much to my pleasant surprise, the sustainability angle is still very important, not just in California, but in other states, especially with the younger people,” he said.
He sees the electric planes as a perfect fit for Silicon Valley, an area that has a history of advancing and disrupting industries.
“When you think about it, this project hooks everything together,” Blatt said. “When you come to a place like Silicon Valley, with sustainability and the environmental side of it, you’ve got the technology side of it, you’ve got the disruptive business model side of it. This is what this place thrives on, right? Our project brings all this together.”
His team received a warm reception in Palo Alto, he said, with many people welcoming the crew and asking questions about their technology. The plane’s battery life allows it to fly for about an hour between charges and for the U.S. tour, the B23 Energic gets shipped in a large container. Blatt said that from the moment the H55 team began unloading it, people began coming up, expressing interest and asking questions. Since arriving on June 18, the team hasn’t had a single bad experience, he said.
“The only time I ever have a bad experience is when the weather is bad and I can’t fly. I can’t blame anybody for that, right?” he said.
