Press Release: Vertical Flight Society Hosts Second Annual Hydrogen Symposium

Vertical Flight Society Hosts Second Annual Hydrogen Symposium

The only in-person hydrogen aviation conference in North America

Fairfax, Virginia, USA, Feb. 28, 2023 — The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, is holding its 2nd Annual H2-Aero Symposium on March 28-30, 2023, in Long Beach, California. This year’s event includes the SAE International airport fueling standards meeting, both of which are open for all conference attendees. Details can be found at www.vtol.org/h2symposium.

“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,” said Mike Hirschberg, VFS Executive Director. The “Multimodal Hydrogen Airport Hub” whitepaper brings ground and airport transportation together with a hydrogen hub concept is posted at www.vtol.org/hydrogen.

“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,” stated Jesse Schneider, the VFS H2-Aero Chair and CEO of ZEV Station. “This year’s theme is taking hydrogen to the next level of acceptance, from policy to integration developments in aircraft and airports.”

The H2-Aero whitepaper published last year is being used as a baseline for discussions on hydrogen in aerospace, from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington, DC, to Hydrogen Hub discussions in California. The evolution of the fueling portion of the whitepaper is SAE AIR 8466 standardization. Symposium attendees are invited to attend SAE’s first meeting dedicated to aerospace hydrogen.

Hydrogen fuel cell-powered ZeroAvia
Do 228 first flight, Jan 19, 2023

The 2nd Annual H2-Aero Symposium will continue pushing the envelope with key presentations by leaders from aircraft developers Airbus, Bell, Bartini, Hydroplane, Piasecki Aircraft and ZeroAvia, and hydrogen infrastructure companies Shell, Universal Hydrogen and ZEV Station. In addition, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) BALIS project will be presented by AVL List GmbH. Also featured are talks from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Department of Defense (DoD), FAA, NASA and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as well as the non-profit Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership (H2FCP) and Fuel Cell Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA).

Long Beach, California, was again selected as the location for the second inaugural event due to the state’s forward-looking vision to support hydrogen for ground transportation and potential links to ports and airports. A tour of the nearby Shell heavy-duty vehicle hydrogen fueling facility will be available to attendees on the morning on Thursday, March 30. 

Following the Symposium, SAE International will hold the first face-to-face kickoff meeting of its new AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup. The task group’s goal is to work between the aircraft and hydrogen industries towards standardization of hydrogen related to the whole value chain at the airport, starting with SAE International’s AIR8466 “Hydrogen Fueling of Aircraft, in both gaseous and liquid form” under development. The SAE meeting will also feature a demonstration on NREL’s H2FILLS tool that is proposed to be used to simulate a wide variety of hydrogen aircraft fueling. All interested parties are invited to join the initiative. 

The 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.

In 2014, VFS held the world’s first public meeting on battery-electric and hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and has been leading eVTOL efforts ever since. With hydrogen fuel cell technology making rapid advances over the past decade, VFS sees a similar, pivotal moment in aviation for all types of aircraft. 

VFS was founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943 by the visionaries of the early helicopter industry who believed that technological cooperation and collaboration were essential to support this new type of aircraft. Today, history is repeating itself, with VFS playing a similar role helping to advance today’s revolutionary electric flight aircraft.

The Society holds the largest and longest-running vertical flight technical conference in the world, which this year will be its 79th Annual Forum & Technology Display on May 16–18, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA: www.vtol.org/forum.