HERA will identify and trade-off the concept of a regional aircraft, its key architectures, develop required aircraft-level technologies and integrate the required enablers in order to meet the -50% technology-based GHG emission set in SRIA for a Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft. The HERA aircraft, having a size of approximately of 50-100 seats, will operate in the regional and short-range air mobility by mid-2030 on typical distances of less than 500 km (inter-urban regional connections). The aircraft will be ready for future inter-modal and multi-modal mobility frameworks for sustainability. The HERA aircraft will include hybrid-electric propulsion based on batteries or fuel cells as energy sources supported by SAF or hydrogen burning for the thermal source, to reach up to 90% lower emissions while being fully compliant with ICAO noise rules. The HERA aircraft will be ready for entry into service by mid-2030, pursuing to the new certification rules, able to interact with new ground infrastructure, supporting new energy sources. This will make HERA aircraft ready for actual revenue service offering to operators and passengers sustainable, safe and fast connectivity mean at low GHG emissions HERA will quantitatively trade innovative aircraft architectures and configurations required to integrate several disruptive enabling technologies including high voltage MW scale electrical distribution, thermal management, new wing and fuselage as well as the new hybrid-electric propulsion and related new energy storage at low GHG. To support this unprecedented integration challenge, HERA will develop suitable processes, tools and simulation models supporting the new interactions, workshare in the value chain and interfaces among systems and components. HERA will also elaborate on the future demonstration strategy of a hybrid–electric regional aircraft in Phase 2 of Clean Aviation to support the high TRL demonstration required for an early impact for HERA solutions.

Alternative fuels such as hydrogen (H2) are seen as playing a central role in a zero-emission future for aviation, but the level of penetration for H2 will depend heavily on scientific and technological breakthroughs to overcome the challenges posed by H2 powered aircraft. The safe and efficient storage of H2 on-board future aircraft is the essential enabler of H2 technologies and will be one of the most complex aerospace engineering challenges that the industry has ever faced. Improvements to existing state-of-the-art solutions includes a better utilization of the available space for fuel storage, adequate insulation techniques to minimize heat leak, continued safe operations, and a weight reduction through low-weight materials, such as thermoset or thermoplastic composites, all while addressing those materials’ inherent challenges (permeability, microcracking, thermal fatigue). COCOLIH2T consortium led by Collins Aerospace is proposing a disruptive concept focused on reducing the impact of the tank’s weight and volume within an aircraft, while ensuring system safety. COCOLIH2T will not only develop a safe composite and vacuum insulated LH2 tank for the aviation sector but has the ambition to go beyond by designing and manufacturing a conformal tank through novel fabrication technologies enabling a reduction of more than 60% in production energy consumption, at least 50% in production time leading to significantly lower manufacturing costs. Additionally, the proposed structure of the tank, based on a multi-material thermoplastic composite concept, is intended to facilitate aircraft structural integration to support overall system weight reduction compared with conventional tank configurations. The key challenge that COCOLIH2T will tackle is the generation of a feasible and affordable design of a conformal variable section box-shape tank while minimizing the boil-off leakages wherever possible. COCOLIH2T’s overall system will be demonstrated at TRL4 by 2025.