Honeywell Aerospace’s engineering team in Brno has integrated the main subsystems of a hydrogen fuel-cell power source for aircraft under Project NEWBORN, a European consortium backed by the EU’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking. The unit is designed to generate and supply electrical energy for an aircraft, with the next stage set to combine hydrogen fuel cells and batteries in a ground demonstration powering an electric motor and propeller.
The system will then move to Gorizia, Italy, for final testing with Pipistrel battery systems and a megawatt-class electric propulsion system developed with the University of Nottingham and Pipistrel. Honeywell built a dedicated test platform near Prague at the ÚJV Řež research site to simulate aircraft functions and check electrical performance, leak tightness, control logic, protection systems and operating parameters.
Project NEWBORN brings together 18 companies and research organisations from ten European countries. It was launched in 2023 and targets one of the world’s most powerful hydrogen-electric aircraft propulsion systems, with the broader aim of moving hydrogen fuel-cell technology closer to use in low-emission regional aviation.