Airbus goes hydrogen *

The A380 may not be dead yet with Airbus coming up with an idea to install a hydrogen-fuelled engine into the body of the jumbo.

The plan is to mount hermetically-sealed tanks in the middle of the cabin from which liquid hydrogen will be pumped into the engine outside.

“Our plan is to take this [A380 aircraft] and modify it into a hydrogen propulsion flight laboratory”, says Glenn Llewellyn, VP of Zero Emission Aircraft at Airbus, in a video announcing the project. “The aim of this flight laboratory will be to learn a huge amount about hydrogen propulsion systems in real ground and flight conditions”.

If the idea does work, it could not only save the A380 from its own obsolescence but could prove a vital piece in the puzzle to making the aviation industry more sustainable through carbon-neutral, fossil-free flying.

Airbus has partnered with CFM International (a “50/50 joint venture between GE Aviation, a division of General Electric of the United States, and Safran Aircraft Engines”) in an attempt to harness the power of hydrogen fuel technology in the body of an A380.

Glenn Llewellyn explains further:  “Our ambition is to take this aircraft and add a stub in between the two rear doors at the upper level. That stub will have a hydrogen-powered gas turbine on the end of it and inside the aircraft, there will be hydrogen storage and hydrogen distribution, which will feed this engine with hydrogen”.

He says that Airbus chose the A380 mainly because of its sheer size, which will give the company space to evolve the technology over time.

But don’t expect an immediate rush to fill the skies with hydrogen-powered aircraft.  A target date of 2035 has been set.

www.airbus.com/en/innovation/zero-emission/hydrogen

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Duncan Reed, Eton

History repeats itself as this is very reminiscent of the Hindenburg airship that was filled with extremely volatile and hard to contain hydrogen that crashed in a ball of flame? You would not get me on a plane with a compressed tank of hydrogen onboard.