Air New Zealand and Airbus have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a project to identify opportunities and challenges for hydrogen-powered aircraft flying over New Zealand. The joint venture aims to contribute to the airline’s plans to achieve zero net CO2 emissions by 2050.
Admittedly, the airline will study the impact of hydrogen aircraft on its network, operations and infrastructure, while the information, support and performance requirements of hydrogen aircraft and the characteristics of ground operations will help to develop Air New Zealand’s decarbonization. Road map.
To Greg Foren, CEO of New Zealand, “Memorandum of Understanding is a wonderful step towards understanding how a hydrogen-powered aircraft can truly be in New Zealand.” The deal will give a strong impetus to the company’s plans to implement low-carbon solutions for its narrow domestic and regional flights starting next decade.
Forensics further argued that New Zealand has “a unique opportunity to become a world leader in adopting zero-emission aircraft, which, if given the commitment to renewable energy in the country, could be used to generate green hydrogen.”
Currently, on the one hand, the aircraft is considering transmitting electricity from hydrogen or less to domestic aircraft. On the other hand, it finds a close solution to minimizing the impact of its long-range operations on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF, for its acronym in English).
This note paves the way for the two companies to work together by sharing potential information that could benefit both from this unprecedented link in the Asia-Pacific region.
Anand Stanley, Airbus Asia-Pacific Chairman, assured that they chose Air New Zealand “because of its commitment to sustainability, reputation for technological excellence and alignment with the manufacturer’s decarbonisation objectives”. “The joint inspection will allow us to obtain valuable information about the airlines’ expectations and their preferences based on configuration and performance.”
Airbus is currently studying three hydrogen-powered aircraft concepts called Zero: a turboprop, a turbophone and an integrated wing option. The aircraft are powered by hydrogen combustion by modified gas turbine engines.
In addition, according to the company, hydrogen fuel cells generate electrical energy that fills the gas turbine, resulting in a more efficient hybrid-electric propulsion system.
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