Conclusion

Regional transport aircraft have a bright future ahead of them. While land and sea transport will certainly take over in many situations, there are still some very important cases where it will remain essential to travel in person over short or medium distances: final stages of negotiations, health emergencies, conflict prevention, island configurations, etc. In this context, decarbonizing this type of aircraft is a short-term imperative. Regional aircraft are therefore a textbook example of reconciling a proven need with existing technologies on a realistic scale.

In this article, we demonstrate – with supporting figures – the technological feasibility of converting existing regional transport aircraft to hydrogen propulsion. We define a 40-seat aircraft with a range of 1,500 kilometers, slightly more efficient than current aircraft thanks to the weight savings...