Electrive writes that the iron pod propulsion system is made of a 1.2-megawatt hydrogen fuel cell, the electric motors alongside the control and cooling components and the system has been successfully tested last year, as per Airbus officials.

Mathias Andriamisaina, Head of Testing and Demonstration on the ZEROe project, said that "it was a huge moment for us because the architecture and design principles of the system are the same as those that we will see in the final design. The complete power channel was run at 1.2 megawatts, the power we aim to test on our A380 demonstrator."

The next step for Airbus would be to test the propulsion capsule later this year, and in the future, the aviation company will work on further optimizing the propulsion system's weight and size so that it meets commercial aircraft specifications.

While fuel cells for the propulsion system were available since 2020, none provided the required power to work on an aircraft at an acceptable weight, until now. The model used as the test bed by the aviation company is actually the result of a joint venture created with ElringKlinge in October 2020, called Aerostack, which was able to design a hydrogen fuel cell unit that meets aviation characteristics.

Photo source: Airbus