Beyond Aero One, or BYA-1

[UpForce]

Beyond Aero doesn't seem to feature in any discussion on this site yet.

HQ'd in Toulouse they tout themselves as designing the first hydrogen fuel cell, full electric ducted fan business jet, the One or BYA-1. Avionics entirely fly by wire, no hydraulics involved. Not going to copy paste their fact sheet here, go visit the website as I'm not familiar with the operation beyond an article I just noticed on Flight Global about their wind tunnel testing.

They might be on to something as actually workable, cost effective breakthroughs on electrolysis are emerging and, geopolitically speaking, the availability (not to mention palatability or sanity) of fossil hydrocarbons increasingly coming into question. Seeing how electric ducted fans have largely taken over RC jet models it'd be kinda cool to see them adopted in actual human sized transport. Allons-y.

https://www.beyond-aero.com/one

 

[Scott Kenny]

I'm wondering just how many airports actually have functional hydrogen fueling options.

Because the outside-the-wire hydrogen stations in California are effectively unusable. They're never filled.

 

[UpForce]

I'm wondering just how many airports actually have functional hydrogen fueling options.

Because the outside-the-wire hydrogen stations in California are effectively unusable. They're never filled.

Where things are now rapidly headed it's not likely that the US market is open for or features highly in any EU based efforts. While this aircraft is just a business jet, the technology itself might be highly interesting in terms of European strategic independence also.

By the time BYA-1 takes to the skies the EU is meant to have an extensive hydrogen network and a functioning (renewable) hydrogen market. These are being facilitated by the European Hydrogen Backbone (a private/public consortium) and the Hydrogen Mechanism/European Hydrogen Bank (EU). Demand for renewable hydrogen in the EU for sustainable heavy industrial processes is high. This could enable hydrogen powered flight infrastructure as well but time will tell whether (European) aviation will adopt it at any scale; some liquid derivatives of hydrogen could also feature highly rendering extending the gas network into airports mute. In any case Beyond Aero, and I'm mainly guessing here, seems to be in position to benefit from these larger efforts between 2030 and 2040.

https://ehb.eu/
https://www.h2inframap.eu/#map
https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/eus-energy-system/hydrogen/european-hydrogen-bank_en
But these are the most general of observations about Beyond Aero's potential macroeconomic and geopolitical environments. Perhaps we could also discuss the different technologies of this particular aircraft in detail.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Availability of fuel gets into usability of the aircraft. Assuming that Europe gets a viable hydrogen infrastructure, this plane would work fine across Europe. Thing is, Europe has a really good rail system that lets you out in the middle of the city, so why would you bother flying?

Getting that hydrogen infrastructure in the US, where I suspect that a private jet would be more usable, would take a lot more work.

I'm also wondering how well it will handle the low atmosphere turbulence, if it maxes out at 26kft. There's a reason airliners travel up in the 30s, and bizjets usually up in the 40s.

 

[UpForce]

The EU rail network is indeed pretty extensive. Perhaps Beyond Aero has considered this as on their website they stress short field and even grass field performance, I do not know. Is the relatively modest operational ceiling a function of ducted fans?

 

[Scott Kenny]

Is the relatively modest operational ceiling a function of ducted fans?

I believe so.

Well, more technically I think it's a limitation of the electric motors driving the fans.

After all, the modern high-bypass turbofan engine is a ducted fan driven by a rather powerful turboshaft engine. 4,000-10,000hp for Bizjet sized fans (well, TF34 sized)

 

[TomcatViP]

@UpForce : Great link with the H2 infrastructure map.

Similarly to what @Scott Kenny said above, why go ducted fan?! A business jets is not just a private aircraft, it is something that flies you fast closer to where you need to be. Then comes comfort. Then Luxury. I very much doubt that there are enough playground for all this (especially if the fans have fixed pitch).

See enclosed factsheet. (But I very much like the F-94 type wing* - Yeah Baby, put some APKWS rockets in that pods!)

*Or, probably, more Leduc 022

 

[NUSNA_Moebius]

“Fly nonstop from London to Nice”? Utterly paltry range, fuel network withstanding. I get they’re focusing on the European market but business jet owners don’t buy an aircraft to use in a set area of the world without expecting decent reach outside of it. If this can’t cross the Atlantic bare minimum, it’s a non starter. Oh, and it’s slow.

The value proposition sucks.

They’d be better off scaling it up into the commuter market where they might have a chance but of course airlines want proven reliable tech. Also, how hot does hydrogen burn when used in direct combustion?

 

[UpForce]

Well, more technically I think it's a limitation of the electric motors driving the fans.

After all, the modern high-bypass turbofan engine is a ducted fan driven by a rather powerful turboshaft engine. 4,000-10,000hp for Bizjet sized fans (well, TF34 sized)

True, interested to see how much this can be improved upon.

Similarly to what @Scott Kenny said above, why go ducted fan?! ... I very much doubt that there are enough playground for all this (especially if the fans have fixed pitch).

I guess we'll have to wait for Beyond Aero's full technological reasoning (beyond economics, sustainability and ease of maintenance) for a while longer. From their website:

Cutting-edge electric ducted fan (EDF) propulsion powered by fuel cells delivers significantly lower in-flight carbon emissions than traditional jet fuel and SAF, producing only water vapour. A unique patented design will be revealed soon.

Airport hydrogen infrastructure seems to be developing quickly, both ZeroAvia and Airbus have sections on it on their websites.

https://zeroavia.com/airports/
https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/energy-transition/hydrogen/hydrogen-hubs-at-airports

“Fly nonstop from London to Nice”? Utterly paltry range, fuel network withstanding. I get they’re focusing on the European market but business jet owners don’t buy an aircraft to use in a set area of the world without expecting decent reach outside of it. If this can’t cross the Atlantic bare minimum, it’s a non starter.

The value proposition sucks.

They’d be better off scaling it up into the commuter market where they might have a chance but of course airlines want proven reliable tech.

I agree that this technology might be (better?) applicable elsewhere. There are niches though where the likes of BYA-1 arguably work just fine; jet rental services where they can allocate appropriate resources according to client needs, ambulance flights, etc. The small business jet/regional market is also under pressure from regulators (e.g. French legislation, link below), a non fossil-fuel aviation option being more likely to be future proof in that regard also.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexle...ort-haul-flights-environmentalists-want-more/