“Our hydrogen-powered aircraft APUS i-2 is finally ready to stand on its wheels and we will celebrate the roll-out”, the APUS Zero Emission GmbH announced in its LinkedIn. The company asked its CEO Phillip Scheffel 4 questions about the idea of building an emission-free airplane.
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁?
In 2011, I launched together with two friends a flying competition, in which the aim was to fly as fast as possible with the lowest possible energy consumption. This competition developed into a think tank for low-emission aviation and has generated many great ideas. With the founding of APUS Zero Emission GmbH in 2014, we were able to implement some of these ideas. For example, electric drives. Once we had started to build our own hydrogen-powered aircraft alongside our aerospace engineering business, it became clear that the biggest challenge would be energy storage. Batteries had and still have too low energy density and are too heavy to fly far. As a gas, hydrogen has three times the energy density of petrol and 15 times the energy density of batteries. This is why hydrogen has great potential to become the green energy carrier of aviation.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀?
The biggest challenge was securing funding. We had to convince funding bodies and investors of our idea. Once we had managed that, the technological and approval-related tasks came: The high level of complexity and the relatively unknown fuel cell technology in aviation had to be developed in such a way that a high level of reliability could be ensured from the very first start. To solve these problems, we put together a team of absolute excellence and proved to have a good hand. The team has mastered everything with flying colors.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀?
The major milestones are always the large structural tests and system start-ups. These include:
The wing fracture tests
The tank pressure tests
Commissioning of the hydrogen system, the fuel cell system, etc.
However, every department had a whole series of smaller successes. From the avionics engineers, who saw their panel complete for the first time, and the landing gear designers, to the workshop, which succeeded in producing the complex wing-fuselage joint. As a complete aircraft was developed here, there were thousands of such milestones. I’m very proud of each single team member and each of them counts.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗣𝗨𝗦 𝗶-𝟮 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆?
The i-2 is an incredibly complex project that required and benefited from both my experience and the experience of the entire team. The i-2 has broadened our horizons. In a way, it is a life’s work and I’m sure that applies not only to me, but many people in the team. It also embodies my ambition to do something meaningful in my life that will benefit this planet and future generations.
Image of APUS Zero Emission GmbH
Press release https://shorturl.at/JH0Nk
