Aviation giant Airbus has revealed new details about its ZeroE project, a hydrogen-powered plane that could be revolutionary.
New zero-emission aircraft could be a hydrogen-powered plane that includes a propeller system “unlike anything that exists today,” Airbus says in a press release.
Airbus' "zero emissions" ambition
The aviation giant announced in September that it will develop a hydrogen-powered commercial airliner by 2035.
As part of that announcement, Airbus unveiled three concepts that can leverage its hydrogen aircraft vision: a short-range propeller-driven aircraft, a short-to-medium airliner and a “blended-wing” aircraft.
The company said it will decide on one of these projects by 2025, in order to focus its research and development team on a single project.
A “capsule” powered plane
Last week, Airbus engineers revealed further details on the propeller concept: the plane, if chosen, will be powered by three “pods” on each wing.
In addition to housing the plane's propellers, each of these capsules would contain all the necessary liquid hydrogen fuel, electric motors, fuel cells, electronics and cooling system.
Virtually everything you need for propulsion, in multiple modules that are easy to assemble and disassemble in record time.
This potentially means that already full fuel capsules could be swapped quickly between a landing and a. new take off.
An absolute novelty
The “pod” configuration of the hydrogen plane is truly unlike anything seen on current runways. The idea that ZeroE could present independent “tank – thrusters” based on hydrogen cells is potentially revolutionary. It can change the very way an aircraft is built, and constitute a new standard.
It seems like a century ago, and it was just 2016 when we were talking about “hybrid” aircraft: today the focus is on total hydrogen fueling.
The next step for Airbus is to understand how scalable a solution like this really is for a large commercial hydrogen aircraft.
Hydrogen airplane propelled by capsules: a significant point
Glenn Llewellyn, vice president of Airbus' ZeroE zero-emission aircraft division, noted in the statement that "this is one option, but many more will be developed before a final selection is made, a decision expected by 2025."
However, the capsule system “is a great starting point. It will fuel further investigation into how we can extend hydrogen technology to commercial aircraft,” says Llewellyn.
I agree. Who knows if the "capsules" will be capable of projecting the hydrogen airplane in the near future.
