MTU Aero Engines is working steadily and with determination on its Flying Fuel Cell™ (FFC). The experts are making good progress, and they have reached some important milestones. The design for the Flying Fuel Cell™ has been nailed down, stack manufacturing for the demonstrator has started, the eMoSys electric motor was successfully tested for the first time, and the first test cell went into operation in Munich.

"With the successful critical design review for our first electric 600-kilowatt powertrain, we are wrapping up the design phase and starting on manufacturing and assembly," says Barnaby Law, FFC Head Engineer at MTU Aero Engines. Recently, production of the ultramodern fuel cell stacks also began in Munich.

The electric motor is running and the test cell is built

Meanwhile, work was progressing on the electric motor for the FFC powertrain, which MTU is developing with its subsidiary eMoSys GmbH in Starnberg. An important milestone was reached here, too: in a challenging series of tests, the 600-kilowatt motor reliably had a maximum continuous output of 600 kW for the first time. Law: "The tests confirmed a high efficiency rate of more than 96 percent, both during takeoff and at cruising altitude."

At the same time, the FFC testing infrastructure was being built at the facility in Munich. It consists of two test cells that include a hydrogen infrastructure as well as cooling water and pressurized air supply. Current status: the fuel cell stack test cell is finished and is now being put into operation. It is designed for stacks with up to 500 kilowatts of electrical power per unit. The second testing setup, the system test cell, is currently under construction and will be used to test the entire engine system.

HEROPS clean aviation research project

Research activities are also going well at the European level. As part of the HEROPS clean aviation research project (Hydrogen-Electric Zero Emission Propulsion System) – building on MTU's FFC – technologies are being developed for a climate-neutral, hydrogen-driven electric powertrain that will be able to power regional airplanes starting in 2035. Led by MTU, there are seven partners working on this project. First they will analyze powertrains with an output of up to 1.8 megawatts and then they will build a HEROPS ground demonstrator. It will prove that the groundbreaking new technologies are feasible, and that they can be scaled up to outputs between two and four megawatts using a modular engine architecture.