The first commercial operating hydrogen plane will have between 40-80 seats. The liquid hydrogen will be stored in the tail, not in the wings and converted into electricity before it is sent to the propellers. Technical challenges are handling high pressure and temperatures.
A large Dutch consortium of 17 partners named Hydrogen Aircraft Powertrain and Storage System (HAPSS), with heavy involvement of the Dutch government, has announced that it plans to have a first hydrogen flight service operational between Amsterdam and London by 2028. If this plan succeeds, Airbus will be beaten by 7 years.
The idea is to retrofit an existing turboprop aircraft to fly on hydrogen, rather than jet fuel. This innovation could open up a market of €16bn for Dutch industry. This plane could be interesting for sparsely populated Scandinavian countries or New Zealand. There is world-wide a potential of 1500 existing propeller planes, that could be made suitable for flying on hydrogen.
The plane would fly a little slower (600 kmh) and have a range of 750 km. Research has shown that 9 out of 10 people are willing to pay more for emission-free flying. Happs estimates that tickets will be 10% more expensive than with conventional aviation fuel.
This also could mean a second life for former Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, that used to make planes as OEM, but after its 1996 bankruptcy, merely lead a life in the shadow as production facility for others like Airbus, Boeing, en Lockheed Martin (F35). This could change.
[theguardian.com] – Dutch group targets hydrogen-fuelled commercial flight in 2028
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