Airbus ‘will be ready’ to develop hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035 goal: CEO

Airbus executives are increasingly optimistic the company can bring a hydrogen-powered aircraft to market in the mid-2030s and plan within several years to settle on the best propulsion architecture for such an aircraft. “The bottlenecks are no longer in the technology of the plane,” Airbus CE Guillaume Faury said on 12 September during an aerospace event in Washington, DC. “We strongly believe that we will be ready by 2035 with a hydrogen plane. The technology will be ready.” Airbus in 2020 revealed three hydrogen-powered aircraft concepts as part of its ZEROe programme, and said it aimed to bring one to market by 2035. The European manufacturer is among several industry players that think hydrogen-powered aircraft could be viable in the coming years. Hydrogen emits only water when burned or used to produce electricity, giving it promise as a means by which the aviation industry can cut carbon emissions. Due to notable challenges, however, other players like Boeing doubt such designs will be ready in the near term. Also speaking on 12 September, Airbus Americas CEO Jeffrey Knittel says several years of evaluation has left Airbus more sure of the technology. “We’re going to make a decision on whether it’s a fuel cell or a [direct-burn propulsion system]” in 2026 or 2027, Knittel says. “We will make a decision on production at that point in time.” The executives stress that, optimism aside, Airbus has not committed to developing a hydrogen-powered passenger airliner, saying the decision depends on factors partly or largely outside the company’s control. Those factors include unsettled regulatory and certification standards, the need for hydrogen transportation and storage infrastructure, and the availability – at the “right price” – of so-called green hydrogen, Faury says. Green hydrogen is generally defined as being produced using renewable energy. “That’s going to be where the challenge lies,” Faury says of those factors. Knittel says any initial hydrogen-powered aircraft would likely be on the “smaller” side, and that “long range” is among the toughest “challenges” associated with hydrogen propulsion. Hydrogen has less energy density than jet fuel, with four times the volume per energy unit. That means a hydrogen aircraft would need to carry more fuel than a conventionally powered aircraft to have the same range.<br/>