Posted on 01/22/2024 6:15:41 AM PST by Red Badger
The ZEROe demonstrator is also the first-ever A380, also known as MSN001, produced.
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SUMMARY
Airbus plans to install the hydrogen fuel cell system on its A380 test-bed for in-flight testing in 2026.
The ZEROe project aims to produce a hydrogen-powered commercial plane by 2035 using innovative technologies and concepts.
The demonstrator will be the first A380 to have taken the sky, with production number MSN001.
After the recent success in testing the hydrogen fuel cell system, the 'iron pad,' Airbus is set to install the fuel cell propulsion system on its ZEROe test bed, an Airbus 380 registered F-WWOW, for in-flight testing from 2026.
In June 2023, the team at Airbus successfully tested the hydrogen fuel cell system, which reached 1.2 megawatts, its full power level. Later that year, the propulsion system prototype, which includes the hydrogen fuel cell system and the electric motors, was powered on at 1.2 megawatts at the E-Aircracft House in Munich.
The 1.2 megawatts that the prototype reached during testing is also the power Airbus aims to test on the A380 in-flight demonstrator, according to Mathias Andriamisaina, Head of Testing and Demonstration on the ZEROe project. This brings the project closer to in-flight testing, with the next step for the ZEROe team to continue testing and to optimize the size, mass and specifications of the propulsion system for flight conditions.
What is the ZEROe project?
ZEROe gets its name from zero-emission and is Airbus's answer to the growing demand for sustainable aviation technologies. The ultimate aim of ZEROe is to produce a hydrogen-powered commercial plane by 2035 using innovative technologies and concepts.
What exactly will the first ZEROe plane look like? There is no definite answer to the question as Airbus is exploring various concepts and technologies for the aircraft. The four concepts that Airbus proposed back in 2020 will pursue either hydrogen combustion or hydrogen fuel cell technology. The latter will be used on a fully electric aircraft type and will be the one tested on the A380 demonstrator.
Airbus zero emissions aircraft
The designated ZEROe demonstrator is also the very first A380 to be produced by Airbus, with production serial number MSN001. The aircraft was the very first ever superjumbo to take to the sky on April 27th, 2005, marking the start of a truly amazing run by the biggest commercial aircraft known to the world.
The life of MSN001 is just as fascinating as the A380 program itself. MSN001 first took on the role of the prototype, conducting technical testing to achieve the certifications necessary to get the plane ready for commercial operations. This includes tests like water ingestion, extreme hot and cold weather operations, high-speed rejected take-off, and more. The aircraft also went on multiple tours around the world and represented Airbus at various airshows, sometimes wearing special liveries.
After the height of the A380 program, MSN001 was preserved by Airbus while many of the other original prototypes were scrapped. MSN001 became an important instrument for testing the Trent XWB engines for the A350 program, fitting the engine under its wing as the number two engine. It first tested the Trent XWB-84 for the A350-900 variant and was then tasked with testing the Trent XWB-97 for the A350-1000 as well.
While some airlines have already written off the A380 as a thing of the past, Airbus has done quite a few impressive things with its very first A380.
More recently, MSN001 was involved in multiple test flights for the use of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. The first test flight, partnered with Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney, used 27 tonnes of unblended SAF provided by Total Energies on the three-hour mission and was followed by several other test flights focused on Performance during take-offs and landings.
You obviously haven't been reading the many UFO articles that sound like scripts from the X-Files. LOL
The Russians always have something bigger.................
It's not a poison, except when it is a poison.
John Roberts, of course, holds a third view and says that CO2 is a tax.
Put a transgender in the pilot seat and you have a recipe for success.
Jet engine propulsion; the comparison of power between a car and an aircraft?
1 Megawatt equals 1341 horsepower. For an aircraft like a Boeing 777 with two GE 90-115B engines each engine produces roughly 23 Megawatt of power during cruise flight with a fully loaded aircraft. This is 30,843 horsepower.
Not going to be more than a twin engine 15 seat commuter aircraft.
I hope they do better than the Hindenburg.
And the hydrogen comes from where?
Water.
Electrolysis.
Electricity.
Power Plant.
Natural Gas, Coal......................
It’s not zero emissions, it’s remote emissions.
Pass.
Hydro-- and carbon-- makes for a nice word, so much more informative than "fossil fuel."
Your college instructor taught you well and effectively. It is the journalism and political science majors who "blather" on in words. Because "complicated applications" are just too complicated....
Let's all run out a burn a fossil to see how those fossil fuels actually work....
Bravo. In the same manner as ground meat comes from a plastic-wrapped package.
They wouldn’t be generating hydrogen on the spot (i.e., in the plane). Likely, it would be hydrogen introduced from storage tanks on the ground into the plane, and it would either be highly compressed or more densely stored in some sort of metal hydride material where the stored hydrogen could be released as needed by heating.
Of course. That's why such terms are entering the media vocabulary such as "green hydrogen" and "blue hydrogen" and more. Because words are so much better at snake oil sales than are those darned equations and "stored" hydrogen. After all "stored" jet fuel....
Great point, more nimby, cue southpark “thanks”
And this looks like an attempt to save the A-380 that few want.
I did some engineering work on a bus that stored hydrogen in this manner used to power an ICE engine during the Obama Administration.
The problems with on-ground storage and compression transfer fueling to the hydride tanks on the bus was not a convenient or timely process, for sure.
The socialist central planners in Europe are not done pissing away money on the A380 yet!
“The output of a fuel cell is electricity. There is no combustion that produces a jet of hot gases. It’s basically a hydrogen powered battery.”
I’m not an authority on this, but I know race cars have fuel cells, and it’s a way to manage the movement of the liquid fuel in the tank. Maybe this with Hydrogen?
This entire project is profoundly dishonest.
Hydrogen does not occur in nature; hydrogen COMPOUNDS occur in nature. Energy must be expended to crack those compounds.
As usual, the question remains: what source of energy is used to crack out the hydrogen? Solar? Wind? You’re kidding, right?
They’re not making a hydrogen powered airplane, they’re making a coal/methane/nuclear powered airplane.
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