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Title: Airbus Promised a 'Green' Hydrogen Aircraft. That Bet Is Now
Unraveling

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/20/2311...

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Wall Street Journal: Five
years ago, Airbus made a bold bet: The plane maker would launch a zero-
emissions, hydrogen-powered aircraft within 15 years that, if successful,
would mark the biggest revolution in aviation technology since the jet
engine. Now, Airbus is pulling the brakes. The company has cut the project's
budget by a quarter, reallocated staff and sent remaining engineers back to
the drawing board, delaying its plans by as much as a decade... Airbus has
spent more than $1.7 billion on the project, according to people familiar
with the matter, but over the past year concluded that technical challenges
and a slow uptake of hydrogen in the wider economy meant the jet wouldn't be
ready by 2035... Airbus says the past five years of work and money haven't
been wasted. The company has established that hydrogen is technically
feasible and delaying the project will give it more time to fine-tune the
technology, executives said... Airbus shifted focus to hydrogen-fuel cells,
which use a chemical reaction to generate energy for an electric motor. It
would produce only water vapor, but would require a more radical redesign of
the airframe and propulsion system. The plane would carry only 100 passengers
about 1,000 nautical miles. Over time, even that proved challenging because
of the extra weight of the fuel cells and their limited electricity
generation. Instead of a short-haul narrow-body - the workhorse of the
aviation industry - at best the aircraft would be more akin to a less
appealing regional turboprop. Airbus received a multi-billion Covid-era
support package from the French government that "required Airbus to spend a
portion of the money on bringing green aircraft to market by the 2030s,"
according to the article. "The hydrogen project helped Airbus access
additional government funding, as well as private green financing... Airbus
ultimately assigned the project an annual budget of about €400 million,
primarily funded through its own coffers, according to people familiar with
its financing arrangements."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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