How Efficient Are Hydrogen Aircraft, Really?

A new postdoctoral project at ISA reassesses the energy and environmental performance of hydrogen-powered aircraft using modern tools and methods.

« Hydrogen-powered transport aircraft consume less energy than their kerosene-fueled counterparts, regardless of the mission (from short-haul to long-haul flights). »
— D. Brewer, Hydrogen Aircraft Technology, 1991

Today, this claim is challenged by modern scientific literature and a thorough analysis of Brewer’s (NASA) work remains difficult to find.

Since January 2025, Romain JAN’s postdoctoral research aims to critically reassess these findings in light of current certification and aircraft design methodologies.

This project focuses on two main objectives:
– Reducing uncertainty in hydrogen aircraft modeling to enable a fair comparison of their energy performance with kerosene-powered aircraft, considering both conventional and disruptive architectures.
– Assessing the environmental performance of a hydrogen-powered fleet using AEROMAPS, a prospective scenario simulation tool developed at ISA.

Supervised by Professors Jean-Marc Moschetta and Christian Gogu (ISAE-SUPAERO), this research is conducted in collaboration with ENAC and funded by the Institute for Sustainable Aviation and the Rhyo Défi-Clef.