A Review of the Key Technologies for Scaled Flight Tests of Liquid Hydrogen Turbine-Powered Aircraft

Against the backdrop of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, the aviation industry—long constrained by traditional fossil fuel emissions and energy efficiency bottlenecks—stands to gain transformative benefits from the adoption of hydrogen power. This shift not only aligns with the industry’s low-carbon transformation goals but also drives breakthroughs in technical capabilities and industrial ecology, for instance, de-carbonising aviation using liquid hydrogen (LH2) turbine-powered aircraft could play a significant role in this aspect. Aircraft equipped with hydrogen turbine power systems will enter the full-aircraft development phase in the near future, and technical support will be required for flight testing. This paper first elaborates on the value and necessity of developing liquid hydrogen-fueled turbine-powered aircraft, a brief review and summary are conducted on the development history and current status of hydrogen-fueled turbine power systems. Subsequently, the technical characteristics of such aircraft, from which the challenges in their development are derived, is discussed from term to term. Then, the role of scaled flight tests in the current development of new-concept aircraft is introduced. Finally, it expounds on the role that scaled flight tests can play in the development of liquid hydrogen-fueled turbine-powered aircraft. However, the corresponding research in this regard is quite inadequate. Thus, this paper conducts research and discuss on relevant aspects, aiming to provide a reference for the scaled flight tests of liquid hydrogen-fueled turbine-powered aircraft.