With a ceremonial roll-out at Strausberg airfield, east of Berlin, the Brandenburg company APUS presented the fuel cell-powered APUS i-2 to the public for the first time. At the ceremony, CEO Phillip Scheffel particularly highlighted the achievements of his team, which developed and built the twin-engine i-2 with the climate-friendly technology itself over several years.
Long-term research work
“After ten years of research and development work, we now have a complete aircraft in the yard,” said the APUS boss, visibly proud, addressing the media representatives and his team. From an initial 30 employees, the company has now grown to a team of 70 employees, some of whom are highly qualified specialists. The engineers developed many parts and components, such as the tanks for gaseous hydrogen, from scratch themselves. The complex software for the fuel cell drive in particular presented the development team with major challenges. After the roll-out on September 6, the maiden flight is scheduled to take place in three months. The type certification of the i-2 is planned for 2027.
Advantages over battery-electric drives
Compared to battery-electric drives, which have so far barely made any headway in general aviation, fuel cell technology offers major advantages. Fully fueled with 23 kilograms of hydrogen, the i-2 should have a range of 500 nautical miles (approx. 900 kilometers). The energy density of the gaseous hydrogen ensures a much higher energy density than the most modern battery storage systems currently in use.
42 million euros development costs
However, the technology is also very complex. So far, APUS is expecting a unit price of one million euros (net price). The development costs are expected to total 42 million euros by the time of the first flight. However, in order to establish the fuel cell drive in the long term, massive investments in a hydrogen infrastructure are still necessary, says Scheffel. So there is still a long way to go until then.
