SPOTLIGHT: TEN COMPANIES TO WATCH IN HYDROGEN AVIATION

Our market map comprises over 110 companies in the hydrogen space. Here, we’ve picked out ten to watch. They include hydrogen aircraft companies, infrastructure providers, and green hydrogen producers: Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, Destinus, Embraer, Fokker, Hy2Fly, Hydrogen Airport, Hysata, Lyte Aviation, Universal Hydrogen and ZeroAvia.

Cranfield Aerospace Solutions

Based in: Bedforshire, UK

CEO: Paul Hutton

Key Product: Hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft

Major customers: Air New Zealand, EVIA AERO, MONTE

Website: cranfieldaerospace.com

Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) was originally spun out of Cranfield University, one of the world’s best-known aerospace higher education institutions. Earlier this year, it announced that it would merge with Britten Norman, a manufacturer known for producing small short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft such as the Islander. Their shared objective is to develop true-zero aircraft using hydrogen-electric powertrains. Chief Strategy Officer Jenny Kavanagh talks about CAeS wanting to become a “little Airbus” in a four-stage process. (Read our interview with Jenny Kavanagh on Sustainability in the Air.)

Steps one and two will be to retrofit existing aircraft, starting with the nine-seat Islander. Steps three and four will be to produce a new aircraft, which Kavanagh feels is necessary due to design issues. Here, CAeS wants to produce “an aircraft that gets the best out of the propulsion system.”

The ultimate aim is to produce aircraft with just under 100 seats by the middle of the next decade.

In December 2022, Air New Zealand announced that Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS), would be part of ‘Next Gen Aircraft’, the flag carrier’s ambitious zero-emissions aircraft programme. It was the only British company selected out of 30 candidates.

Another customer is EVIA AERO, which plans to be a zero-emissions regional airline in Germany. EVIA has ordered 15 conversion kits for small regional aircraft from CAeS. Meanwhile, MONTE Aircraft Leasing (MONTE) has signed a Letter of Intent with Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) to purchase 40 modification kits to convert Britten-Norman Islanders to hydrogen-electric power.

Destinus

Based in: Vaud, Switzerland

CEO: Mikhail Kokorich

Key Product: Hypersonic hydrogen-powered aircraft

Website: destinus.ch

While supersonic aircraft company Boom Supersonic has received much media attention over the years, some aircraft manufacturers have an even bigger ambition. Rather than merely flying supersonic aircraft at speeds faster than that of sound, they want to go a step further. Hypersonic travel, if it becomes a reality, will allow flights between Europe and Australia at Mach 5 i.e. in as little as four hours.

One such company is Switzerland-based Destinus, which expects its hypersonic aircraft to be powered by liquid hydrogen.

Of course, getting to hydrogen-fuelled hypersonic travel will be a long road, and will take at least a decade or more. The company has trialled a subsonic drone and plans to progress to a supersonic drone prototype next year, eventually aiming for hypersonic.

Destinus says its strategy is to test the technology on remote-piloted drones first, before developing piloted aircraft that can carry passengers.

Initially, the Destinus S, expected to enter service at some point in the 2030s, will fly up to 25 passengers at hypersonic speeds. This will be followed by the Destinus L in the 2040s, carrying 300+ passengers.

Clearly, this is an ambitious undertaking, which has many sceptics. However, Destinus has a Plan B to keep the company afloat – making and selling hydrogen gas turbines while the development of the aircraft happens in the background.

With part of the Destinus team now based in Spain, the startup has also been awarded grants for two projects worth a total of 26.7 million euros by the Spanish Government to expand its hydrogen propulsion capabilities.

Based in: São José dos Campos, Brazil

CEO: Arjan Meijer

Key Product: New hydrogen-electric regional aircraft

Major Customers: Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft to airlines worldwide

Website: embraercommercialaviationsustainability.com/concepts/#energia

Embraer, the world's third-largest commercial aircraft manufacturer, is set to launch a new family of regional aircraft called Energia in the next decade. The first in this lineup will be a hybrid-electric aircraft. However, the next Energia generation, slated for 2035, features hydrogen fuel cells. This will carry up to 30 passengers in a 1-2 configuration and will boast a 70% reduction in noise and zero CO2 emissions.

Embraer's focus on smaller aircraft with the Energia family provides a stepping stone for advancing and refining new technologies, with the potential to scale to larger aircraft on the horizon.

Embraer contends that these aircraft will not only be cost-effective for airlines but could also provide cheaper fares for passengers, potentially even surpassing the affordability of electric cars. Comparing a 200-300 nautical mile trip by car to a hydrogen fuel cell aircraft journey, Embraer predicts that the latter will be 2.5 times faster, 25% less expensive, and emit 25% less CO2 per passenger.

Embraer already sees a need for at least 4000 of its new regional aircraft by 2035. However, that demand could be as high as 20,000 aircraft due to the cheaper operating costs and other benefits Embraer has identified for the Energia family.

Fokker Nextgen

Based in: Hoofddorp, The Netherlands

CEO: Juriaan Kellermann

Key Products: Conversion of the Fokker 100 and a new hydrogen aircraft by 2035

Website: fokkernextgen.com

The successor of the legendary Dutch regional aircraft maker Fokker, Fokker NextGen is aiming to produce a new aircraft running on liquid hydrogen to be in service by 2035, with a range of 2500 km.

The first stage is to modify a Fokker 100 aircraft – a regional jet plane with a capacity of 100+ passengers – to run on a hybrid-hydrogen configuration. According to the company, “the Fokker 100 will be converted for liquid hydrogen fuel, but will also be able to fly on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), kerosene, or a combination of fuels.” This modified aircraft is due to have its first test flight in 2028.

Meanwhile, assembly of the new clean sheet aircraft prototype will start in 2032 with first flights in 2033. It will be ready to be delivered to customers in 2035.

Though the company hasn’t released more details of this aircraft, the digital images on the Fokker NextGen website show a 2-3-2 configuration, implying that it will be somewhat larger than the regional turboprops and jets that Fokker used to produce.

In a show of confidence in the concept aircraft’s potential, Fokker NextGen has received €25 million in funding from the Dutch Government, and an undisclosed amount from the EU’s Clean Aviation Fund.

Source: Fokker Next Gen

Based in: Stuttgart, Germany

CEO: Dr Josef Kallo

Key Product: Hydrogen fuel cells / hydrogen-electric powertrains

Website: h2fly.de

A subsidiary of American eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) company Joby, H2FLY achieved a historic aviation milestone in September 2023 by completing the world's first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft.

The company’s HY4 demonstrator aircraft, equipped with a hydrogen-electric fuel cell propulsion system and liquid hydrogen, completed a series of successful piloted flights, including one lasting over three hours.

This accomplishment was the culmination of Project HEAVEN, an EU-supported consortium led by H2FLY. The consortium includes Air Liquide, Pipistrel Vertical Solutions and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Next year, H2FLY plans to open a Hydrogen Aviation Center at Stuttgart Airport, which is co-funded by the Ministry of Transport Baden Württemberg. The company says that the Hydrogen Aviation Center will become a focal point to the future of Europe’s aviation industry by providing fuel cell aircraft integration facilities.

H2FLY says that by the end of the decade its first commercial fuel cell system will be certified and operational in aircraft applications across the globe. By the early 2030s, the company’s next-generation scaled-up system will be certified, operational, with the potential to “truly decarbonize at least half of the global air traffic.”