Beyond Aero said on Tuesday that preliminary design review for its hydrogen-electric business aircraft concept has concluded, allowing the program to progress to detailed engineering and validation planning.
The company said the milestone confirms the integration of major systems, including hydrogen storage, electric propulsion and thermal management, into an architecture intended to meet certification requirements under EASA CS-25 and FAA Part 25 standards. According to Beyond Aero, the aircraft is being developed from the outset under transport-category certification criteria typically applied to commercial airliners.
The concept features a twin-propfan configuration powered by fuel-cell electric propulsion, using gaseous hydrogen stored in externally mounted tanks. Beyond Aero said utilizing 700-bar gaseous hydrogen avoids the additional complexity associated with cryogenic storage while maintaining compatibility with existing and planned refueling infrastructure.
The company reported that wind tunnel testing and computational modeling conducted during the preliminary design phase showed agreement between predicted and measured aerodynamic performance. The aircraft is designed to carry six passengers up to approximately 800 nautical miles, with performance and system architecture detailed in a recently released technical paper.
Luiz Oliveira, chief engineer at Beyond Aero, said the review signals the project’s viability.
“The Preliminary Design Review confirms that the aircraft configuration and its major systems — propulsion, hydrogen storage, aerodynamics and avionics — have reached the level of maturity required to support a certifiable architecture,” Oliveira said.
The company added that hardware validation has included subscale and full-scale propulsion testing campaigns, along with ground-based system testing.
Beyond Aero also said it is working with regulators through a pre-application process with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to define certification requirements for hydrogen propulsion.
https://avweb.com/aviation-news/beyond-aero-hydrogen-jet-design-review