The Future of Advanced Air Mobility

Spirit AeroSystems To Work on Electric Aviation Group's Hydrogen Airliner Plans

Aerostructures group Spirit AeroSystems is to collaborate with UK-based Electric Aviation Group (EAG) in its plans to bring a 90-seat hydrogen-powered regional airliner to market. The U.S. company’s UK division has signed a term sheet in-principle agreement to get involved in the project in an as-yet-unspecified way.

In 2020, Spirit acquired the former Bombardier Aerospace factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which makes wings for the Airbus A220 narrowbody airliner (formerly the CSeries) and several airframes for the Canadian group’s Challenger and Global business jets. Last month, the company signed an agreement with Airbus to develop and manufacture its CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL aircraft.

EAG is aiming to have its Hydrogen Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft (H2ERA) airliner in commercial service by 2030 with a projected range of 1,200 nm. The range projection is largely based on the premise that in the early days of hydrogen propulsion in air transport the limited availability of the fuel may mean that services have to be planned around all fueling being conducted at the airport where the service originates until infrastructure supports en-route refueling.

According to EAG founder and CEO Kamran Iqbal, the company’s plans have three key elements around the development of megawatt-scale electric propulsion and fuel cell systems, as well as hydrogen storage systems. The company is establishing three subsidiaries to focus on these elements, starting with the Smart Megawatt Stack Fuel Cell Systems operation that it set up in January 2022.

“Our aerospace industry needs a consolidated approach to fast-track decarbonization of the aviation sector,” said Iqbal. “We have assembled best-in-class teams with complementary capabilities to turn our vision into a reality.”

In March 2021, leasing group Falko made an undisclosed investment in EAG. It has also received a strategic investment from Ireland-based airline CityJet.