Airbus has made a pledge to have the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft in service by 2035, and to support that ambition, three hydrogen-powered concept aircraft designs have been unveiled by the company this week.
The trio of aircraft are known collectively as ZEROe due to their reliance on hydrogen as a fuel source. "As recently as five years ago, hydrogen propulsion wasn’t even on our radar as a viable emission-reduction technology pathway," explains Glenn Llewellyn, Airbus VP, Zero-Emission Aircraft. "But convincing data from other transport industries quickly changed all that. Today, we’re excited by the incredible potential hydrogen offers aviation in terms of disruptive emissions reduction."
Airbus chose three very different designs for these concept aircraft. The first uses two hybrid hydrogen turbofan engines and is the most conventional-looking of the three. The second uses two hybrid hydrogen turboprop engines and is a return to using propellers. Finally, the most eye-catching of the new aircraft uses a blended-wing body and has an "exceptionally wide interior" while relying on two hybrid hydrogen turbofan engines just like the standard turbofan design.
These designs are just a starting point, though, and Airbus admits they will change because, as Jean-Brice Dumont, Airbus EVP Engineering explains, "Hydrogen has a different volumetric energy density than jet fuel so we have to study other storage options and aircraft architectures than existing ones."
Airbus is working on a very tight schedule to meet the 2035 deadline it has set itself. The company's engineers have just five years to "mature all the required hydrogen technologies" before the ZEROe aircraft programme officially launches in 2025. A full-scale aircraft prototype is then planned for the late 2020s before we hopefully get a commercial aircraft by 2035.
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