Development of the world’s first commercial liquid hydrogen powered aircraft

German hydrogen propulsion company H2FLY and its European partners recently reached a major milestone in their efforts to make zero-emissions commercial flights a reality. Once the developed LH2 tank has passed the LH2 leak and vibration test by French industrial gas and service provider, steps have now been taken to integrate the container into the demonstration aircraft. H2FLY HY4.

The integration process started after the LH2 tank passed the test phase in September 2022. This is a major achievement of the HEAVEN project, of which H2FLY is the coordinator and Air Liquide is the partner. HEAVEN’s main objective is to design, develop and integrate the world’s first aircraft powertrain based on high power density. fuel cell system and frozen LH2 storage technology into an existing two- to four-seat aircraft for in-flight testing.

One step closer to greater aircraft range

“Passing the LH2 vibration and leak tests marks a huge step forward in delivering truly zero-emissions flight with increased range—we’re now able to kickstart the engine integration process.” gas, is even closer to this next exciting phase of flight testing,” declared H2FLY Co-Founder and CEO Professor Dr Josef Kallo in a news entry posted on the website. ‘Hydrogen Central’.

“For the past 10 years, at H2FLY, we’ve been focused on developing and delivering new technology, and now we look forward to completing the integration process so we can begin ground testing in preparation for the world’s first commercial liquid hydrogen electric plane.”

In the HEAVEN project, H2FLY is responsible for providing the HY4 aircraft-powered fuel cell system as well as the integration platform and overall system architecture and fuel cell control and hydrogen storage system. Besides the freezer tank designer and supplier Air Liquide, other HEAVEN partners including Pipistrel Vertical Solutions (Slovenia) will provide support for tank integration and demonstration and DLR (Germany) will assist. commissioning and testing high capacity fuel cells and systems of architecture. The fuel cell system developed by DLR uses fuel cells from project partner ElringKlinger, Germany.

As reported in the news, the integration of the LH2 tank and fuel cell is expected to be completed in the next few months. The aircraft will then undergo rigorous ground testing as early as 2023. The project team predicts that the HY4 will be “the world’s first passenger airliner to use. liquid hydrogen.”

Finally, HEAVEN (High Energy Density FC System for Air Passenger Vehicles Powered by Liquid HydrogeN) aims to demonstrate how cryogenic hydrogen fuel-based propulsion technology can support How to support the region. aircraft markets that meet the environmental goals set out in Flightpath 2050, Europe’s vision for aviation. The project ends in September 2023.