At the Paris Air Show, start-up ZeroAvia announced the launch of a new consortium backed by UK government funding to develop liquid hydrogen storage systems. The project, known as LH-SIFT (Liquid Hydrogen System Integration & Flight Test), has been awarded a £10.8 million grant and aims to support experimental flights using a Dornier 228 aircraft.
The goal of LH-SIFT is to streamline the liquid hydrogen supply chain by designing a lightweight, robust onboard tank. ZeroAvia will lead the project in partnership with Green Resource Engineering and Gas & Liquid Controls. Through this initiative, ZeroAvia will become the first company to use a commercial aircraft as a test platform for cryogenic components, providing significant benefits to British manufacturers.
This announcement comes as ZeroAvia prepares for certification of its ZA600 hydrogen-electric powertrain for aircraft with 10 to 20 seats. In parallel, the company is also working on propulsion systems for larger aircraft.
“Hydrogen is essential to achieve the volumetric and gravimetric energy densities required for large zero-emission aircraft — no other solution offers this potential,” said James McMicking, Director of Strategy at ZeroAvia. “This project will accelerate the development of liquid hydrogen technologies and enable in-flight and refuelling testing.”
Are you a LinkedIn user who would like to follow the latest hydrogen news on a more regular basis? Then our LinkedIn weekly newsletter may be what you’re looking for. You can subscribe to it by clicking here.
PS: You can sign up to our newsletters to follow the latest hydrogen news on a more regular basis:
– “Your hydrogen news live” (to receive all our articles as soon as they are published)
– “Your weekly newsletter” (sent every Monday morning).
