In May this year, a hydrogen-powered aeroplane taxied across an operational airport for the first time in the Netherlands. Now it’s time to take to the skies, say students from AeroDelft.

Text: Marlies ter Voorde • Photos: AeroDelft

Test flights with hydrogen-powered aeroplanes have taken place on occasion, says operations manager Tycho Gunter of the AeroDelft student team halfway through the interview. But as far as he knows, you could easily count those on one hand worldwide. AeroDelft’s goal – to develop a single-seater hydrogen-powered aeroplane and get it airborne – is therefore an ambitious one. The project is called Phoenix Full Scale.

In mid-May, the team reached an important milestone. The aircraft prototype refuelled with gaseous hydrogen at Rotterdam The Hague Airport and then taxied across the airfield. A bizarre experience, says technical manager Teun van Heugten, who has completed his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and will begin the master’s track in flight performance and propulsion next year. ‘The realisation of the aeroplane’, as he calls it. ‘We had the tank, the engine, the propulsion system and a CAD model – a computer model in which everything is put together, a sort of blueprint for the final product. But when the aeroplane starts moving right before your eyes, it suddenly feels real.’

Ongoing project

Whilst some student teams work on a different goal each year and do not make use of what the previous team has created, AeroDelft does exactly the opposite. This is an ongoing project that has been running for six years, with a new group of people working on it every year. ‘An empty aeroplane and a test rig were already in place when we started this year. Our aim was to further develop the powertrain and integrate all the systems into the aeroplane,’ says Gunter. He, too, is taking a gap year between his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Delft; next year, he’ll be focusing on control and simulation within the aviation sector.

It was a race against the clock to get everything ready in time for the taxi run, explains Van Heugten. ‘We had to ensure that the hydrogen, which is stored in the tank at a pressure of up to seven hundred bar, was reduced to a pressure of around two bar before it entered the fuel cell. And we didn’t even have an electric motor yet.’ Once those issues had been sorted out, the students still had a month and a half to get everything properly fitted into the aeroplane.

The workshop in Delft is open from seven in the morning until ten in the evening. To make the most of this, the team started working in shifts. ‘It was hectic but also brilliant, almost addictive even,’ says Gunter. ‘There was an incredible amount of energy in the team. Everyone could picture the end goal; this was the mountain we were going to climb.’ That mountain kept getting higher along the way, says Van Heugten, because not all the obstacles were known in advance and testing at an operational airport requires strict conditions to be met.

Full-time

In parallel with the taxi project, a department at AeroDelft was working on the technology to use liquid rather than gaseous hydrogen in the eventual aircraft. Van Heugten: ‘But the people from that sub-team have also been coming to help out in the workshop over the last few weeks.’

Of the fifty students at AeroDelft, around twenty are working full-time on the project. Around 80 per cent come from faculties at Delft University of Technology, such as applied physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science or technical public administration. In addition, there are Aviation Engineering students from InHolland University of Applied Sciences, and a law student from Leiden. Gunter: ‘He’s our in-house legal adviser.’

Companies and other partners also play a part, both financially and in practical terms. ‘They supply components and allow us to use equipment, workspaces and, ultimately, even their operational airport,’ says Gunter. ‘They do this because it benefits them too – when components are being tested, for example – but also because they enjoy it. Our enthusiasm is clearly contagious.’

AeroDelft’s driving force is making aviation more sustainable. Gunter and Van Heugten are convinced that hydrogen is indispensable in this regard. It has already been proven that it is technically feasible. ‘But the sector is facing a chicken-and-egg problem,’ says Gunter. ‘To fly on hydrogen, you need a different infrastructure. That requires major investment. But people are only willing to make those investments if there is demand for it. So everyone ends up waiting for each other.’

Peloton

Van Heugten: ‘The great thing about a student team is that we don’t have to wait for that. I see it as a peloton, where all the riders are keeping a close eye on one another. We’re the little team that breaks away. The peloton can catch us quite easily by putting in a strong burst of pace, and then we’ll lose our lead, but that’s not what we’re after. We want to get that peloton moving faster.’