North America’s Only In-Person H2 Conference

The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), an international non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of vertical flight, is making ready to hold its Second-Annual H2-Aero Symposium. The event, which will span 28-30 March 2023 and be held in Long Beach, California, will include the SAE International airport fueling standards meeting, which will be open to all conference attendees.

Vertical Flight Society executive director Mike Hirschberg stated: “Last year’s event was the first conference in North America on hydrogen for aviation, with pioneering presentations from the government, aviation industry, and hydrogen industry. It was a huge success with a sold-out event that led to the development of a groundbreaking whitepaper.”

The work to which Mr. Hirschberg referred is the Multimodal Hydrogen Airport Hub whitepaper, which amalgamates ground and airport transportation infrastructure with a hydrogen hub. The document may be viewed at www.vtol.org/hydrogen .

Vertical Flight Society H2-Aero Chair and ZEV Station CEO Jesse Schneider added: “This year’s H2-Aero Symposium promises to feature even more groundbreaking development presentations, from the who’s-who of aerospace, including two fuel-cell aircraft programs now taking flight. This year’s theme is taking hydrogen to the next level of acceptance, from policy to integration developments in aircraft and airports.”

From the Federal Aviation Administration’s hallowed Washington D.C. halls to Hydrogen Hub discussions in California, the 2022 H2-Aero whitepaper is being utilized as a basis for discussions of hydrogen in aerospace. The evolution of the whitepaper’s fueling portion is SAE AIR 8466 standardization. Symposium attendees are invited to attend SAE’s first meeting dedicated to aerospace hydrogen.

Attendees of the Second Annual H2-Aero Symposium will enjoy presentations by leading aircraft OEMs Airbus, Bell, Bartini, Hydroplane, Piasecki Aircraft, and ZeroAvia. Additional presentations will be made by hydrogen infrastructure concerns the likes of  Shell, Universal Hydrogen, and ZEV Station. In addition, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) BALIS project will be presented by AVL List GmbH. Talks presented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Department of Defense (DoD), FAA, NASA, and the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as well as the non-profit Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership (H2FCP), and Fuel Cell Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) will also be presented.

A tour of the nearby Shell heavy-duty vehicle hydrogen fueling facility will be available to attendees on the morning of Thursday, 30 March.

Long Beach was again selected as the location for the H2 event by virtue of California’s fatuous decree that sales of gasoline powered vehicles will be banned in the state after 2035.

Following the Symposium, SAE International will hold the first face-to-face meeting of its new AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup. Subject group will strive to serve as a liaison between the aircraft and hydrogen industries for purpose of facilitating standardization of hydrogen within the aviation/airport supply chain, beginning with SAE International’s inchoate AIR8466 “Hydrogen Fueling of Aircraft, in both gaseous and liquid form.” In addition, the SAE meeting will feature a demonstration of NREL’s H2FILLS tool, which simulates a wide variety of hydrogen aircraft fueling.

The 2023 VFS H2-Aero Symposium is sponsored by Bartini, Piasecki, and SAE International, with Toray Advanced Composites, ZeroAvia, and ZEV Station supporting the event with exhibits. Additional sponsorships are available.

FMI: www.vtol.org, www.vtol.org/h2symposium