The project is supporting the EU’s ambition of launching the first regional and short-range hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035. Credit: Pipistrel

Hydrogen solutions company H3 Dynamics has been selected as the fuel cell supplier for EU-funded research project HyPoTraDe’s modular hydrogen powertrain system. 

The French company will supply its newest class of aviation-grade fuel cell systems for the project, which is powered by a consortium led by Textron subsidiary Pipistrel in partnership with Honeywell International, Netherlands Aerospace Centre, and Fraunhofer Society.

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HyPoTraDe is partially funded by the EU’s Clean Aviation joint undertaking and is designing and testing 500kW modular fuel cell-battery hybrid-electric distributed electric propulsion (DEP) powertrain architecture for use on small aircraft. 

H3 Dynamics co-founder Bertrand Gauthier told Airport Technology: “Backing innovative research with proven technologies and aeronautics expertise is key to advancing hydrogen aviation.

“This programme moves beyond digital design to test hardware with an aerospace engineering mindset, relying on real-world data for validation.”

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The powertrain project began in January 2023 with an aim of launching regional and short-range hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035 and is also supported by the University of Stuttgart in Germany and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. 

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As part of the DEP powertrain’s development, HyPoTraDe will also create a digital twin for the system to support its desire to scale up the technology to megawatt class in the future, using data from its current system to test digital versions of future scaled powertrains. 

The consortium is just one of several groups working on alternatively powered aircraft as part of the EU’s Clean Aviation venture, which has put tens of millions of euros into hydrogen propulsion research as well as hybrid-electric and ultra efficient aircraft. 

H3 Dynamics involvement in the project adds to the success of the company, which signed a supply deal with clean fuel supplier Raven SR in 2023 and recently added Airbus to its partners. 

The fuel cell manufacturer signed a contract for the supply of its systems as part of a demonstrator replacing the auxiliary power unit on an Airbus aircraft for the aircraft company’s UpNext subsidiary. 

Hydrogen systems have become one of the focal points for the industry’s next generation aircraft research and could be one of the best hopes for the industry to reach net zero by 2050. 

A recent report by the International Council on Clean Transportation warned that zero emission aircraft development would need to be dramatically accelerated to reach the target.