Southampton Airport has applied for planning permission to extend its runway by 164 metres. Already, Southampton and Winchester councils acting as consultees have declared their opposition to the application on environmental grounds.
However, advancements in Hydrogen technology promise to make decarbonised regional aviation a reality very soon, perhaps as soon as 2024. Cranfield University are leading the way in this country and proved that hydrogen can be used to fuel an aircraft by demonstrating a hydrogen powered flight from Cranfield Airfield in December 2020. American start-up, Universal Hydrogen have developed an aircraft hydrogen storage system using 2 metres by 1 metre pods. The technical breakthrough that is making this possible is known as sorbents, where hydrogen clings to the surface of sand-like granular particles. These particles provide a large surface area within a compact space. Read more…