Lessor Avolon is entering a partnership with Airbus to examine the commercialisation and financing perspective for future hydrogen-powered aircraft, and how a leasing model will support fleet development.
Avolon is the first leasing partner for Airbus’s ZEROe hydrogen-propulsion project, under which the airframer aims to develop a zero-emission aircraft by 2035.
“We know we can’t solve decarbonisation alone and welcome Avolon’s expertise and worldwide leadership in the aircraft leasing business,” says ZEROe vice-president Glenn Llewellyn.
The airframer has been examining various concepts for a zero-emissions aircraft, but is leaning towards a turboprop-type design for operating over short sectors of up to 1,000nm.
Llewellyn says ZEROe is working towards concept refinement around 2025-26.
“We’ve got a lot more detail, and there has been some changes in the concept,” he said during a sustainability briefing. “Hopefully next year we’ll be able to announce some of that, once we’ve finished a bit of work.”
Avolon president Paul Geaney says the need for the lessor to “look beyond” current lower-emissions aircraft is “vital”.
“It will take a wide ecosystem of contributors to overcome the challenges of hydrogen powered commercial flight,” he adds.
Avolon will “help us understand the opportunity from a leasing perspective”, says Llewellyn, adding that Airbus has formed over 20 partnerships in North America, Europe and Asia to explore this hydrogen ecosystem.
Llewellyn highlights progress with the development of key building-blocks for hydrogen aircraft, including the fully-electric 1.2MW engine testing carried out in Munich.
“The journey doesn’t stop there,” he says, stating that the airframer needs to look not only at normal operations but abnormal circumstances – examining component failure, and whether control systems can reconfigure in the right way during unexpected events.
Airbus is testing fuel-cell stacks which are “now very similar” to those which will be tested on an Airbus A380, he says, while the propulsion effort is also focusing on trying to reduce weight and package size for installation.
