Airbus’s initial hydrogen airliner likely to have 80 seats: Wagner

Propeller-driven zero-emission design ‘becoming a reality’ insists commercial aircraft chief.
Airbus commercial aircraft chief Lars Wagner expects the company’s initial propeller-driven hydrogen fuel-cell airframe to have around 80 seats.

But he is reluctant to disclose more details – including the design configuration or the number of engines – given its competitive nature.

“This is becoming a reality,” he said, speaking during a briefing in Toulouse.

“We are doubling down on the [propulsion] system, which is also strategic for us. It’s the first time we are involving ourselves in becoming an engine OEM, a European engine OEM.

“So it’s going to happen. We need to see hydrogen obviously coming up as an infrastructure.”

Airbus aims to offer an aircraft for about 80 passengers.

Wagner says a hydrogen airframe is “revolutionary” and the design needs an optimum point “in terms of physics, in terms of hydrogen that you can carry, and a commercially-viable [aircraft]”.

“That’s what we have identified, in the range of 80,” he says.

“We still continue to believe this is the sweet spot of this technology in the timeframe we are currently communicating,” he adds. “But then there’s growth potential to go higher.”

While Wagner says this would be the “starting point” for an in-service model, it would “most likely” be preceded by test flights with a 20-seat design.

He says the zero-emission aircraft remains an ambition alongside the proposed next-generation single-aisle.

“I want to push it forward as a second big programme that enters into service, probably towards – difficult to say today – but towards the 2040-plus timeframe,” he says.

“What we are doing right now is maturing the technology for the propulsion system. We have [created] our joint-venture with MTU Aero Engines to really bring the two top-knowledgable companies about hydrogen and propulsion systems together in Europe.”

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