AIN reports “Airbus has set an ambitious target to bring to market the world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft by 2035.” The company is currently looking into “the use of hydrogen fuel cells with a propeller propulsion system, which would generate nearly zero emissions.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Tag: Hydrogen
Rolls-Royce Runs Pearl 700 Engine on Hydrogen
Aviation International News reports that Rolls-Royce has run a Pearl 700 business aircraft engine on 100% hydrogen fuel as part of a longer-term development of a hydrogen combustion engine for narrowbody airliners by the mid-2030s.
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Rolls-Royce Sees Hydrogen as SAF Future
Aviation International News reports that hydrogen “may be the fuel of the future, but it’s probably best used to create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) rather than a direct fuel source for hydrogen-powered aircraft that do not yet exist today.” Rolls-Royce’s Senior Vice President of Strategy Frank Moesta said Wednesday during a panel discussion on novel propulsion at EBACE 2023, “To be honest, I’m not a big fan of thinking about burning hydrogen in an aircraft.” Moesta added that he “would prefer to see hydrogen being used to create eFuels – a synthetic form of SAF – rather than develop aircraft with entirely different propulsion systems.” Moestra explained that eFuel “can be produced locally more easily and sustainably than ordinary SAF, which is made from agricultural feedstocks.” This would make eFuel “more accessible than regular SAF, which is only produced in a handful of facilities around the world today.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Dovetail Electric to Offer Electric, Hydrogen Refits to Turboprop Aircraft
Aviation Week reports that Dovetail Electric Aviation has been formed to “develop and offer battery-electric and hydrogen-electric powertrain retrofits for a range of turboprop commuter aircraft.”
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Aviation Industry Considers Hydrogen Power
FlightGlobal reports that during the Sustainable Skies World Summit, The Boeing Company Sustainability and Future Mobility Vice President and Chief Engineer Brian Yutko said aviation engineers faced “a once in a generation renaissance” regarding hydrogen-powered aviation.
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
Aviation Week Article: Airbus Delays Hydrogen But Expands Engine Test Plan
Guy Norris at Aviation Week reports, “Airbus is slowing ambitions to develop a hydrogen-fueled airliner by the mid-2030s but is expanding nearer-term plans to flight test unducted and ducted sustainable aviation fueled (SAF) engines for its next-generation single aisle. Under its ZEROe initiative announced in 2020, Airbus planned to develop a 100-seat hydrogen-fueled airliner for service entry in the middle of next decade, and aimed to flight test supporting propulsion and systems technology on an Airbus A380 later this decade.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)