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United Airlines will take delivery of 50 jet engines that will run on compressed hydrogen, the airline has announced, and has an option to buy up to 50 more.
The zero-emission engines can be retrofitted onto smaller jets that fly regional or short-hop routes, and will serve as testbeds for the technology while engineers figure out how to scale hydrogen-electric power systems to the size needed by passenger liners designed for cross-country or trans-ocean travel.
United, along with Alaska Air Group, has bought an ownership stake in ZeroAvia, the start-up building the engines.
Aviation is one of the most greenhouse-gas-intensive human activities, with both airlines and environmental activists focusing attention in recent years on “green” air travel.
ZeroAvia debuted its first hydrogen-fueled plane in September 2020, the same month that Airbus unveiled designs for three hydrogen-powered jets that it said could take to the skies by 2035.
Earlier this year, Rolls Royce’s hydrogen-driven fuel cell test plane made a 15-minute maiden flight.
But California’s H2 Clipper start-up is thinking outside the airplane.
The company envisions the return of dirigibles, the hydrogen-filled blimps that were fashionable a century ago until the 1937 Hindenburg disaster killed the industry.
Clipper’s high-tech version could carry payloads of at least 340,000 pounds, twice the weight of any of today’s cargo planes except the Antonov An-225, and deliver cargo at a quarter of the price of today’s airships, according to company calculations.
Offering as much as 265,000 cubic feet of cargo space, the giant balloon would cruise at 175 mph, much slower than an airplane but as much as 10 times faster than a freight boat, with the blimp crossing the Pacific Ocean between the U.S. and China in 36 hours, the company claims, and at 75 percent less cost than a plane.
Also, the blimps would have a 6,000-mile range, the company says, allowing to travel between any two points on Planet Earth with only one fuel stop on the way.
That could eliminate clogged shipping ports, especially because the blimps could take off and land vertically.
Not only would the blimp’s balloon be filled with hydrogen, but the craft’s electric engine would be powered by liquid hydrogen, making an entirely emissions-free flight.
If the balloon could sport solar panels and the power train was fitted with an electrolyzer, the blimp could theoretically make its own hydrogen fuel, Clipper engineers say.
The company expects to loft a prototype in 2024, build a commercial version before 2027, and have 100 hydrogen clippers ferrying cargo by 2034.
TRENDPOST: The engineering challenges to put hydrogen fuel-cell power into a full-size passenger jet won’t be solved in this decade but will arrive within 15 years.
Blimps, dirigibles, and zeppelins all but disappeared from the air after a series of disasters in the early 20th century, culminating in the Hindenburg catastrophe. However, new technologies have convinced a significant number of engineers that the giant hydrogen-filled balloons can be safe enough to haul freight.
As we have said for years, the Oil Age is waning. There is no better evidence of that than the air transport industry beginning to make the transition from petroleum-based fuels to renewable energy.
Artist’s concept of H2 Clipper’s hydrogen cargo aircraft.
Credit: H2 Clipper
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