NEWBORN focuses on realistic and commercially viable project outcomes significantly exceeding the Call topic Expected Outcomes. This is the only path to bring a real impact, well beyond paperwork and test rigs. With this in mind, the project applies the steppingstone principle and intends to bring aviation graded fuel cells into the market as soon as safely possible. This will generate operational data to support certification on CS-25 aircraft. It will further provide vital acceptance gap mitigation in the conservative air transport environment. The 18 multi-disciplinary partners, including 3 non-traditional aerospace partners and 2 SMEs, will work on 28 key enabling technologies. They will be matured and optimized to support an EIS of CS-23 aircraft by 2030 and regional aircraft by 2035. The ambition of the project is to achieve an overall propulsion system efficiency of 50% by 2026, calculated as a ratio of energy on the propeller shaft to the hydrogen lower heating value. This ambition greatly surpasses the expected outcome of the HPA-02 Call. Similarly, by the end of 2025, the project will demonstrate widely scalable fuel cell power source technology with a power density of >1.2 kW/kg and stack power density of >5 kW/kg. Technologies will be adaptable to different maximum flight altitudes of ≤ FL250 and ≤FL450, and scalable down to ~250kW and reusable for secondary power in SMR flying altitudes by 2026. An innovative cryogenic tank concept will be integrated, demonstrating a gravimetric index of 35% for the CS-23 aircraft and scalable up to 50% for regional aircraft. The project will also address high power density high voltage energy conversion, propulsion systems, and the next generation microtube heat exchangers, along with an accurate digital twin of the overall system. All together, NEWBORN will develop a technology demonstrator prepared for flight demonstration in Clean Aviation Phase 2.

New lightweight High-Performance Composite (HPC) materials and efficient sustainable processing technologies will have an enormous environmental and performance benefit in all sectors of application. However, current sustainable HPC application is limited to large sectors due to their limitations in terms of long processing times, high prices and low recyclability. To overcome these limitations, r-LightBioCom propose a paradigm shift in the way HPC are manufactured and recycled, unlocking sustainable-by-design production of lightweight HPC. Therefore, the project will enable new circular value chains towards r-LightBioCom results, contributing to environmental-related EU goals and reducing the HPC waste generation and the use of non-sustainable fossil resources. To this end, a sustainable catalogue of new advanced biobased and recycled HPC materials will be initially developed with inherent recyclability properties (at least 3 new types of bio-resins, 4 new biomass-derived nanofillers and additives, and 3 families of sustainable fibre-based textile products). To reduce current associated manufacturing costs and high energy consumptions and emissions, efficient processing techniques will be developed (2 new fast curing techniques) combined with recycling technologies for the new catalogue of materials to reduce waste generation and induce circularity. A new open method and related tools (Coupled Ecological Optimisation framework) will promote and standardise holistic sustainable HPC design, modelling and systematic optimisation, leading to continuous sustainable catalogue growth and inclusion of new families of biobased, recyclable lightweight HPC at competitive cost. All results will be validated in 3 use cases at automotive, infrastructure and aeronautic industries with specific business cases, contributing to establishing new resilient, sustainable and innovative value chains in the EU HPC industry, promoting a change of paradigm from linear to circular ones.

An aircraft that can transport between approximately 100-130 passengers, and is intended for short and medium haul flights can be considered to be a Regional Aircraft. The challenge is to improve the passenger experience so that regional aircraft offer a comparable level of inflight comfort, free from noise and vibration, with a comfort level comparable or better than today’s modern jets and with a reliability of service well beyond today’s service into small and regional airports.

In order to meet the objectives of the European Green Deal by 2050 in the aviation sector, the transition towards H2-powered aviation is the solution with the most potential. Although hydrogen-powered aircrafts exist, the current cost of storing and using H2 as a fuel in prolonged flights make their democratization impossible. The main blocking point is the absence of viable storage systems of H2 in aircrafts considering the strict limitations in terms of weight, volume, and cost-efficiency. A sensitivity analysis shows how the economics depend on the tank’s gravimetric index (GI). Today’s technology can barely achieve 20% GI for 500kg of H2, while industry actors need at the very least 35% GI for 500kg of H2 to transition towards H2-powered aviation. OVERLEAF intends to develop a game changer Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) storage tank to enable the transition towards H2-powered aviation. Based on a disruptive design (under patent process) and leveraging innovative materials and technologies, the OVERLEAF solution is expected to boast a GI higher than 60% for 500kg of LH2, with no venting over 24h. Furthermore, the concept is an enabler for using the aircraft’s fuselage as the outer tank, allowing to seamlessly integrate the tank in the aircrafts structure. OVERLEAF will have an interdisciplinary R&D approach focusing on advance materials engineering, testing and combination at lab and at pilot scale, together with appropriate simulation of different design architectures of the hydrogen storage system. The project will be based on three distinctive phases and implemented in 7 Work Packages. The consortium includes multidisciplinary partners from 6 different EU countries and contains all the necessary expertise and know-how to carry-out all tasks needed to achieve OVERLEAF’s ambitious objective.

To enable a technologically and economically feasible H2-powered aviation, new integral LH2 tank solutions are required that could serve as part of the airframe main structure and capable of withstanding its respective loads. The H2ELIOS project will develop an innovative and effective lightweight LH2 storage system for aircraft. It will be implemented as demonstrators in two fuselage-like cylinder section with approximately 1.9 m of external diameter and approximately 2.3 m of external length. These demonstrators would be duly supported by component and subsystem ground tests at appropriate scale at project completion (TRL 5 at storage level). The aim is that the concept is ready to be embedded and integrated in a specified aircraft architecture for flight demonstration in later stages. H2ELIOS will provide a feasible and novel low-pressure double-layer composite tank-based system, enabling the tank shape to be either conformal or non-conformal to the profile of the aircraft. Its general effectiveness will be assessed in terms of high GI performance and easiness of integration within the aircraft structure. This concept will be supported by latest evolutions of innovative methods and technologies in terms of multidisciplinary design development, manufacturing processes and means of compliance and shall be demonstrated in operational conditions: first on ground up to TRL5 and then in flight by the end of Clean Aviation Phase 2 clearing a TRL6 maturation gate. Finally, delivery to the market is expected in the 2030-2035 period. In this way this project shall contribute to accomplish the objectives of the European Green Deal regarding decarbonization of the aviation industry. The activities of H2ELIOS will be supported by explicit agreed support of EASA and an External Advisory Board comprising commercial aircraft OEMs, H2 management and cryogenics experts, MRO services, airlines, aircraft system integrators, materials developers and suppliers and airports operation