Honeywell Aerospace has integrated the main subsystems of a hydrogen fuel-cell power source for aircraft as part of Project NEWBORN, a European low-emission aviation programme backed by the EU Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking. The work, led by the company’s engineering team in Brno with consortium partners, advances a test platform intended for ground trials of a hydrogen-electric propulsion system for a megawatt-class aircraft demonstrator.
The integrated platform was assembled at a research and engineering facility in the Czech Republic and brings together power generation, fluid distribution, electrical and control systems, safety equipment and heat-rejection hardware. The next phase calls for a ground demonstration in which the hydrogen power source and batteries will feed electricity to a megawatt-class electric motor driving an aircraft propeller.
After testing in the Czech Republic, the power source is due to move to Gorizia, Italy, for the following stage of the project. There it will be linked with battery systems from Pipistrel and a megawatt-class electric propulsion system developed jointly by the University of Nottingham, Honeywell Aerospace and Pipistrel. The programme was launched in 2023 as part of Europe’s wider effort to reduce aviation emissions, but no timetable has been disclosed for the Gorizia campaign or any subsequent flight-testing.