A Honeywell-led project to develop a 1MW-class fuel cell powertrain is gearing up for its first major ground tests of an individual fuel cell stack later this year.
Called NEWBORN, the €44 million ($50.5 million) project, part funded by the EU’s Clean Aviation unit, is being directed from Honeywell’s main European base in Brno in the Czech Republic.
Running since January 2023 and with the preliminary and critical design reviews complete, consortium members have begun to deliver subsystems to the company’s Brno facility, says Michal Zavisek, vice-president and general manager Honeywell technology Solutions EMEA.
“We are now assembling what is going to be the ground test demonstrator,” he says, speaking to FlightGlobal in Paris. “There are six containers-worth of equipment being integrated in Brno.”
Project specifications say the goal is to “bring aviation-grade fuel cells into the market as soon as safely possible”, and it is accordingly working on “28 key enabling technologies”.
These will be “matured and optimised” to support entry into service of a fuel cell-powered CS-23-category light aircraft by 2030 and a larger regional aircraft by 2035, it states.
Honeywell intends to test a 300kW fuel cell stack in Brno in 2025, building towards ground tests of the 1MW powertrain – including the cryogenic hydrogen storage tank, fuel cell, thermal management, and control system – by the project’s conclusion in June 2026.
“We are running at full speed ahead,” says Zavisek.
However, the consortium is already eyeing how it would take the powertrain to flight test if it succeeds in securing further funding under Clean Aviation’s second phase.
“Our goal is to take it to flight,” Zavisek adds, although he notes the system will need optimisation, along with work to integrate it onto an aircraft.
No test platform has been disclosed, but the NEWBORN consortium includes Slovenian airframer Pipistrel.
