Novadev plans carbon-free freighter

The future of aviation may be carbon free, and with that in mind, aircraft developer Novadev Inc . is making the case for a large-scale hydrogen-powered freighter. Manufacturers Airbus and Boeing design aircraft with a passenger focus, Novadev founder and Chief Executive Michael Kramer told Air Cargo Nex t. That’s not going to change, he said. But cargo planes would be vastly improved if they were designed specifically to optimize cargo operations, from loading the aircraft, flying and unloading, he said. The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company, founded in 2018, designed a zero-carbon aircraft powered by hydrogen-fueled turbine generators that look like traditional propeller engines. He declined to share the cost of the aircraft but said it is commensurate with current market value freighters. A prototype of the jet is 10 to 12 years away, he said. The EcoFlight EF-5C will be constructed for cargo and reduces the cost of air logistics, Kramer said. It has zero-carbon hydrogen or low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) options to allow for an effective fleet mix of environmentally friendly aircraft , he said. [caption id="attachment_57138531" align="alignright" width="412"] The NOVAdev Inc. EF-5C freighter. (Photo/NOVAdev)[/caption] According to industry analysis , SAF is thought to be the most effective tool to reduce carbon emissions from the aviation industry, despite its high price and low feedstock . However, hydrogen could be a better option for existing infrastructure, Kramer said. “One of the reasons why we’re looking at air cargo is that if you want to change the technology — and the technology we’re talking about changing is to go from a conventional jet-fueled airplane to hydrogen airplane — you’re going to sack that airplane,” Kramer said. “You’ve got to make a better product. ... so, when we talk about freighters, one of the things we want to talk about is not just where the market is, but how do we make a better product?” The EcoFlight EF-5C is designed with cargo-loading doors in the front and back of the aircraft and built around rectangular unit load devices with integrated automation, Kramer said. Its hybrid truss fuselage is low cost to build and easily repairable, he said. The aircraft is designed to have a life cycle of 30 to 40 years with about 70,000 cycles. It can carry a maximum payload of 88,000 pounds and fly 3,200 nautical miles, Kramer said. The innovative approach to changing air logistics does not come without challenges, however. Hydrogen as fuel Hydrogen is still in its early days, and whether it could be mass produced to account for increasing air travel is its own challenge, James Ryan , air cargo analyst at Cargo Facts Consulting, told Air Cargo Next. “[It has potential] contingent on whether there is mass adoption of hydrogen, which is a possibility, especially in the European Union,” Ryan said. “The issues really are in transportation and storage. Both are capital intensive and given the current state of things in the economy, the risk-averse investor is kicking in and the hydrogen companies are getting hit, which in turn, slows things down.” A benefit of hydrogen as a fuel is that it’s lighter than traditional jet fuel, which means the aircraft can carry more cargo, Kramer said. He added that it also has the potential to be cost effective for carriers and forwarders. There is potential for carriers to negotiate where the hydrogen comes from in terms of its electricity source, which means the carriers could benefit from having authority over the supplier, even becoming the supplier themselves, Kramer said. “It really changes the paradigm for cargo,” Kramer said.

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