The AeroDelft student innovation team at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is preparing to fly its Phoenix PT hydrogen aircraft. Initially, the unmanned aircraft prototype will be powered by electric batteries, but subsequently, the aerospace engineering students intend to convert it to gaseous hydrogen and later to liquid hydrogen.

During a briefing on July 31, the AeroDelft team also announced plans to develop a piloted, hydrogen-powered aircraft called the Phoenix FS. The students will build this around a four-seat Sling 4 kit-built aircraft that they took delivery of last week.

During the “Cleaner Skies” event that marked the end of the academic year for the Dutch university, the AeroDelft team confirmed that they are now moving from the design to flight testing phase of their project. “With the development phase largely behind us, we are confident that our Phoenix will take off to pave the path to cleaner skies,” said team manager Jan-Willem van Zwieten.

The design for the Phoenix PT prototype was unveiled in February. According to prototype technical manager Sam Rutten, the AeroDelft team expects to start flight testing this model during the course of the next academic year.

Over the past 12 months, the students have been researching, developing, and testing the internal components for the Phoenix FS model, negotiating agreements with suppliers, including the choice of the kit-built aircraft itself. “Of the large puzzle that we had to solve over the past year, the aircraft itself was the missing piece,” said Phoenix FS technical manager Matthew Dekkers. “Now that we finally have our own aircraft we can start integrating the systems that were developed over the past year.”

The July 31 briefing from Valkenburg Airport included a video showing the first taxiing tests for the Phoenix PT and a virtual reality tour to show how the hydrogen propulsion system will be configured. The multinational team, which consists of over 50 students, called for Dutch civil aviation authorities to make more certification personnel available to support the rapid prototyping of sustainable aviation technologies.

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