UK aerospace group seeks £30mn to develop hydrogen-powered aircraft

A British aerospace specialist is aiming to raise £30mn this year as part of ambitious plans to develop a hydrogen-powered electric aircraft ready for launch as early as 2026. 

Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, originally spun out of Cranfield University and whose backers include the venture arm of French aerospace group Safran and UK-listed fund HydrogenOne Capital Growth, said it was in talks with more than a dozen new investors. The money from the fundraising, which follows an earlier round last year, would be used to develop a flying demonstration aircraft and do preliminary work on the final product, according to the company. 

“It will give us runway until the end of 2024,” said chief executive Paul Hutton.

The aviation industry is working on a range of new fuel technologies, including the use of sustainable aviation fuels and “green” hydrogen produced from water using renewable electricity, as part of efforts to cut its carbon emissions.

Europe’s Airbus plans to use a superjumbo A380 to test hydrogen-powered jet engines as part of a plan to bring a zero-emissions aircraft into service by 2035.

But there are different opinions in the industry about the speed with which hydrogen power can be deployed, given the technical challenges involved. There are also worries about whether enough green hydrogen will be available.

Hutton believes hydrogen-powered aviation using fuel cell technology is not very far away. Cranfield is among a handful of businesses pursuing plans to deploy such technology on regional or subregional aircraft.

Cranfield, which has decades of experience in aircraft modification and design for companies including Airbus and Rolls-Royce, announced in April plans to merge with British aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman. The two companies had already been collaborating on a UK government-backed project to retrofit a nine-seater Britten-Norman Islander aircraft with Cranfield’s hydrogen fuel cell engine. 

The merger would allow the companies to accelerate those plans, Hutton said, and increase the likelihood of getting the modified aircraft certified by aviation regulators within the promised timeframe. 

“It’s about credibility and being able to deliver and sell the product — a zero-emissions aircraft,” he added.

JJ Traynor, managing partner at HydrogenOne, said that with the merger Cranfield now had the “tools to get to certification for hydrogen flight with the original equipment manufacturer”.

“So there could be a commercially available plane in 2026/7,” he added.

Cranfield is pursuing a four-stage development plan, with the ultimate ambition being to design and manufacture a brand-new regional aircraft. The first phase will be to retrofit the nine-seater aircraft with the fuel cell engine powered using hydrogen gas. This will be followed by the modification of an existing 19-seater aircraft with a liquid-hydrogen fuel cell-based system.

Ultimately, Cranfield wants to design a larger regional aircraft with up to a hundred seats.

Hutton believes hydrogen could underpin growth in the market for smaller subregional aircraft in particular, especially as pressures to cut emissions rise. He is sanguine about concerns about the cost of producing green hydrogen, arguing that it would become “cost competitive” as production volumes increased and governments invested in fossil fuel alternatives. 

Sceptics, however, argue that existing sustainable aviation fuels — made from fats and vegetable oils or produced synthetically — offer a much more practical solution to cutting emissions given the huge infrastructure investments required to make hydrogen power a reality.

“All things considered, hydrogen offers little hope of significantly reducing aviation’s integrated carbon dioxide from now to 2050,” said Alan Epstein, a former industry executive and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Aside from better aeroplanes, the only approach that has a chance at significant contribution is [sustainable aviation fuel].”

For Hutton, success could have wider ramifications for the UK: if all of Cranfield’s plans came to fruition, it would be the first company in more than four decades to develop a new commercial aircraft in Britain.

The sector, said Hutton, had largely evolved into a “supply chain industry” serving the big manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing. The UK now had a chance to get back to designing and manufacturing aircraft as aerospace moved from “evolutionary change to revolutionary change” with the advent of new technologies, he added.