The zero-emission, integrated fuselage aircraft imagined by Airbus.

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Airbus

  • Airbus unveiled on Monday its ambition to put a fully carbon-free airliner into service in 2035.

  • The manufacturer has made the technological choice of inexhaustible hydrogen.

  • But it is the entire aeronautics ecosystem that will have to adapt to succeed in this bet.

A sky full of planes but still blue.

This is what Airbus dreams of in the midst of a storm caused by the coronavirus health crisis.

The aircraft manufacturer announced on Monday its intention to "revolutionize the aeronautics ecosystem" by developing the very first "carbon-free" airliner.

Guillaume Faury, the boss of the European manufacturer, is counting on commissioning in 2035 and on the potential of hydrogen as an alternative fuel to kerosene.

Psychologically, the green plane, freed from fossil fuels, is the answer to the “Flydskam” according to the Swedish expression, the “shame of taking the plane”, an awareness that was already significant before the crisis but of which the small music is amplified in a post-confinement world.

Hydrogen, the constituent element of water, carries the promise of a super-green fuel as long as a non-polluting technique is found to isolate it.

Futuristic wings and cryogenic tanks

Pragmatically, the carbon-free plane is a track drawn by the government when it announced a support plan of 15 billion euros for aeronautics.

The public authorities (including in Germany) are ready to put the pot to take the leadership of the green plane and occupy a whole generation of engineers whose horizon is uncertain for the moment.

Meet #zeroe, our new zero-emission concept aircraft!

These 3 concepts are powered by #hydrogen to reduce aircraft emissions.


Read the full story ➡️ https://t.co/6ijHK1r9V4



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Connect to our Twitter live-stream at 1400 CEST #ZeDay #ZeroEmissionsDay pic.twitter.com/I8E3sUIPHA

- Airbus (@Airbus) September 21, 2020

Finally, technically, "hydrogen has the same performance as kerosene," recalls Grazia Vittadini, the group's technology manager.

But it also has the drawback of taking "four times the volume".

Hence the allure of the three "concept planes", three variations of futuristic architectures of "ZEROe" devices (for zero emissions), presented Monday by Airbus.

The hydrogen turbojet engine imagined by Airbus.

It could carry 120 to 200 passengers.

- Airbus Group

The zero-emission turboprop engine (propellers) imagined by Airbus.

- Airbus

For the first two planes imagined - a “cousin” turbojet of the A320 that can carry up to 200 passengers and a propeller turboprop with around a hundred seats - the rear of the fuselage is “blind” to spare a large tank hydrogen.

And the small "chimney" visible above the fin is an evacuation duct in the event of a leak.

For the third concept, "a flying wing", UFO style, which has aroused the irony of social networks "the possibilities of storing hydrogen are multiple", indicates the aircraft manufacturer.

According to Jean Brice Dumont, head of Airbus Engineering, the choice between the three aircraft possibilities should be made by 2024. "We have no target product," he says.

Need allies

The general idea is to equip the future device with cryogenic tanks since the hydrogen to be injected into the turbines and burn in kerosene fashion must be transported in the liquid state, in other words cooled to - 250 ° C.

The hypothesis of hybridization with a fuel cell, therefore of additional electrical energy, is on the table.

For this new challenge, Airbus will benefit from the experience of Ariane programs which already use hydrogen as fuel.

Moreover, Airbus, the engine manufacturer Safran, Arianegroup and the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (Onera), based in Toulouse, have already been working together since the start of the year on the conversion of civil aviation to 'hydrogen.

Finally, the aircraft manufacturer will not be able to make the transition on its own.

At other times, to accommodate the A380, airports around the world had to lengthen their runways.

There, they will have to equip themselves with a hydrogen refueling circuit and airline maintenance teams will also have to be trained.

We will have to embark an entire ecosystem in the adventure.

Science

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Economy

Government details its plan for hydrogen

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