Kawasaki Heavy Industries announced to have succeeded in the operation test of its small-sized hydrogen engine for aircraft under development using the exclusive hydrogen combustion method.
The company is now attempting to make a technological development of hydrogen burning equipment for hydrogen-powered aircraft engines as part of the Core Technological Development for Hydrogen Aircraft which was adopted in the green innovation business project named “Next Generation Aircraft Developing Project” (2021 to 2030).

In the combustion test implemented this time at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Noshiro Rocket Testing Center a hydrogen-powered testing burner was adopted replacing the small-type turbo jet engine “KJ100” with a thrust power of 400 kgf.

Comparing with the conventional fuel, the burning temperature is higher. The company explains, “In spite of using the hydrogen which is apt to become unstable, we have been able to attain the same performance as that of the conventional fuel by means of burning hydrogen stably and applying a temperature to each part at less than each designed setting.”

For reference, the present project corresponds to the composition design, the experimental production and the evaluation phase of burner (2023 to 2025).

The company is planning to make the test production and evaluation of the engine system including the burner during the coming period of 2026 to 2028, and then in the ultimate phase (2029 to 2030) to implement a through-and-through integrated demonstration test from the tank system to the engine system aiming for the evaluation of feasibility and performance.