GKN Aerospace is carrying out an urgent review into the scale and timing of its hydrogen research and technology investments following Airbus’s decision to delay service entry of its first ZEROe aircraft until 2040 at the earliest.
Despite this setback, the UK firm expects in early 2026 to conclude the first of several hydrogen-related projects, validating the performance of a cryogenically cooled 1MW fuel cell powertrain under a project called H2GEAR.
Notwithstanding the “really good progress” made on the underlying technology, GKN faces a dilemma over the pacing of its research and how much it invests, says chief technology officer Russ Dunn.
GKN had seen Airbus as its “key partner in the hydrogen space” and the ZEROe aircraft the most likely platform for its developmental fuel cell powertrain or hydrogen storage system.
But Airbus in February disclosed that due to challenges with the maturity of hydrogen technology and infrastructure it was slowing the pace of its ZEROe project; it now sees service entry coming up to 10 years later than its previous 2035 forecast.
“The change is meaningful – it’s not just a year or two shift, it’s a meaningful shift,” says Dunn.
“So, we are now looking at our total portfolio to decide which of those ingredients we should retain, which of those ingredients we should slow down or even put on the shelf.”
But with most of its R&T projects receiving public investment, GKN will need to negotiate with funding bodies – the Aerospace Technology Institute in the UK and the Luchtvaart in Transitie programme in the Netherlands – and its industrial partners on any deadline or scope changes.
“We have not come to a conclusion yet but we know we are going to need to be more focussed, we know we are going to need to look at the pace of our investment because the aircraft programme [ZEROe] that is the primary route of exploitation is now much later,” Dunn says.
Peter Dilnot, chief executive of GKN, says discussions with Airbus are continuing “to establish what does the [hydrogen] roadmap look like and where should we invest to support the development of the [ZEROe] aircraft”.
While he insists the company is “continuing to commit to hydrogen in the long term”, the delay to the ZEROe aircraft’s introduction “will necessarily have an impact on how much we invest and where we invest”.
Any change to the investment priorities will have a particular impact on two UK initiatives: HyFIVE – led by Marshall – a £40 million ($53 million) project to develop a liquid hydrogen fuel system, and H2FlyGHT, a £44 million project working on a 2MW fuel cell powertrain with the ultimate goal of taking the system to flight.
Dunn says HyFIVE is currently at the “early concept level” – or pre-technology readiness level 3.
“Broadly speaking it is on track but the schedule of what on track means was defined by the original [ZEROe] 2035 entry-into-service date,” he says.
Airbus’s decision to slow its hydrogen research and reallocate test aircraft to other projects will also likely have a knock-on effect on H2FlyGHT.
GKN had last year pivoted away from a previous partnership with Embraer, intending to flight test the 2MW powertrain aboard an Airbus jet, likely its A380 flying testbed – an aircraft on which the airframer also planned to test its own fuel cell system.
But Dunn says that plan will have to be re-evaluated in the light of the changed priorities: “We will need to reflect and respect that in our plans.”
In the meantime, GKN continues to progress its work on H2GEAR. The 1MW cryogenic electric motor is now in build, ahead of the start of testing later this year.
Initial proof-of-concept studies using a 70kW cryogenic motor at the University of Manchester showed 99% efficiency levels, and Dunn believes that performance can be replicated on the larger motor.
“By the end of Q1 next year we will prove it at 1MW level,” he says.
Most of the subsystem testing for the integrated powertrain is complete and “we are now very much in the phase of bringing those elements together at [the University of Bath’s] IAAPS facility,” says Dunn.
The final system will also employ a different cryogenic cooling mechanism than that used on the proof-of-concept motor. GKN will use helium – cooled by the liquid hydrogen fuel – to bring the motor and electrical distribution system down to -253°C (-423°F).
While the goal is to wrap up the H2GEAR testing in early 2026, Dunn cautions that as a R&T programme, work may slip into the second quarter.
Airbus in March revealed a conceptual fuel cell-powered airliner capable of carrying 100 passengers on routes of up to 1,000nm (1,850km). GKN believes its fuel cell technology could scale sufficiently to power an aircraft of up to 160-seats.
This story has been edited to correct an error relating to technology readiness levels in the 13th paragraph.
