As Airbus presses ahead with plans to bring a hydrogen-powered commercial airliner into service by 2035, the European airframer is eyeing superconductors as a potential enabling technology for the high-power, zero-emissions aircraft.
Airbus UpNext, an Airbus subsidiary dedicated to future flight technologies, has partnered with Toshiba to collaborate on the development of a superconducting electric motor for future hydrogen-powered aircraft. Under an agreement signed at the Japan Aerospace Exhibition in Tokyo last week, the partners pledged to build and test a 2-megawatt superconducting electric motor.
Earlier this year, Airbus launched a technology demonstration program called Cryprop, which aims to use liquid hydrogen to simultaneously fuel and cool a 2-megawatt superconducting electric propulsion system. Liquid hydrogen will cool the propulsion system via a helium recirculation loop. That same liquid hydrogen could be used as a fuel source in hydrogen-electric aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
Superconductors allow electrical current to flow with zero resistance when cooled below a critical temperature just a few degrees above absolute zero (minus 273 degrees C). In conventional electric motors, the hardware poses an inherent electrical resistance that causes some energy to be lost in the form of heat. Without that resistance, superconducting motors are far more efficient at converting electricity into mechanical energy.
Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation, the Toshiba Group’s energy arm, has been studying superconductors for nearly half a century and has already developed its own prototype of a 2-megawatt superconducting motor.
“Partnering with Toshiba presents a unique opportunity to push beyond the limitations of today’s partial superconducting and conventional electrical motors,” said Grzegorz Ombach, Airbus senior vice president and head of disruptive research and technology. “Through this collaboration, we aim to deliver a breakthrough technology that could unlock new design possibilities, in particular for Airbus' future hydrogen-powered aircraft.”