European aerospace giant Airbus revealed more details about its hydrogen aircraft project on Thursday (17 December), which could include a propeller-driven plane “unlike anything seen on today’s runways”.
In September, Airbus said it aimed to develop a commercial airliner by 2035 that can be fuelled by hydrogen, potentially unlocking the prospect of zero-emission air travel.
As part of that presentation, the aerospace firm released three concepts: a propeller-driven regional aircraft, a short-to-medium-haul airliner and a radical ‘blended-wing’ aircraft. Airbus is due to decide by 2025 which design to focus on.
Today, its engineers gave more details about the propeller concept, which could be powered by three ‘pods’ on each wing. Those self-contained units would include all of the liquid hydrogen, fuel cells, propeller blades and electronics needed to lift the aircraft.
“This ‘pod’ configuration is a great starting point to nurture further inquiry into how we can scale up hydrogen technology to commercial aircraft,” said Glenn Llewellyn, VP of zero-emission aircraft at Airbus.
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