AIRBUS Hydrogen Powered A380 Airliner ? .... Cutting edge test bed !

[MJCronin]

GE PERFORMING HYDROGEN ENGINE TESTING IN THE EURO AEROSPACE INDUSTRY:

"The European aircraft manufacturer is partnering with aero-engine maker CFM International, the long-established joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines to provide the first engine for the program.CFM is to modify a GE Passport turbofan engine to run off hydrogen, while Airbus is configuring MSN1 A380, the first ever A380 built to carry the engine on a support at the top rear right of its fuselage."

WOW !!!!!

There is a lot of research money involved here... Structural conversion of an A380 into a test bed will not be cheap

https://www.aerospacetestinginterna...rt-a380-for-hydrogen-engine-flight-tests.html

What do you think of this ?

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

 

[rb1957]

it does seem odd, even if it is a test article hanging around with nothing to do. I'd've thought a 340 would've given the same opportunity (the swap out 1 in 4 engines) ?

It'll be interesting to see what medium they use. They obviously won't use H2. They may use ammonia and separate the H2 at the engine ?

We've had people knocking on our door, trying to get us to put H2 tanks in their planes ...

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

 

[TugboatEng]

In the article, the aircraft was already constructed as a test bed for the RR Trent engine.

 

[SwinnyGG]

I read an article a while back which described a system where pure H2 was used to provide the energy to crack ammonia and release gaseous hydrogen, which was then burned. The energy requirement for cracking only was low enough that the onboard H2 storage could be non-cyrogenic, with the cracked ammonia providing 100% of motive power. I can't find it now but it was interesting, and seemed to help solve one of the issues with onboard ammonia-to-hydrogen, the low energy density of liquid ammonia relative to liquid hydrogen or conventional Jet A.