A consortium of 18 European companies led by Honeywell Aerospace has integrated the individual subsystems of a megawatt-class hydrogen-electric power source into a single functioning unit, a milestone the company announced on September 17, 2026.

The achievement caps three years of parallel development under Project NEWBORN, launched in 2023 and funded by the European Union through the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking. The power source can now generate and supply electrical energy at the scale required for aircraft propulsion.

The next phase is an integrated ground demonstration of the complete propulsion chain. In that test, the hydrogen fuel-cell power source and battery systems will feed electricity to an electric motor driving an aircraft propeller.

From Prague to Gorizia

Honeywell developed a dedicated test platform near Prague to qualify the fuel-cell power source. The facility replicates a range of functions of an actual aircraft and includes its own power source, working fluid distribution systems, electrical systems, a control room, safety equipment and heat rejection systems.

The hardware will now move to Gorizia, Italy, where final tests will assemble dozens of technologies developed at different sites across Europe into one functional unit. In Gorizia, the fuel-cell power source will be coupled with battery systems from Pipistrel and a megawatt-class electric propulsion unit jointly developed by the University of Nottingham, Honeywell Aerospace and Pipistrel.

The consortium spans 10 European countries and includes PowerCell, Fraunhofer, Test-Fuchs, Siemens Industry Software, KU Leuven, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Italian aerospace research centre CIRA.

"Project NEWBORN is not only demonstrating new technology, it is demonstrating the ability of European industry, universities and research organizations to work together on ambitious technological visions and turn them into functioning systems," said Miroslav Matoušek, NEWBORN Project Coordinator at Honeywell Aerospace.

Parallel threads, one system

The integration challenge is substantial. Air supply and conditioning, hydrogen management, thermal management, electrical distribution, power electronics, control, communications and safety monitoring were all developed in parallel across the consortium.

"A range of interconnected technologies have been developed in parallel within Project NEWBORN – from air supply and conditioning systems, hydrogen management and thermal management to electrical distribution, power electronics, control, communications and safety monitoring," said Ondřej Kotaba, Technology Fellow and NEWBORN Technical Lead with Honeywell Aerospace. "Bringing all these subsystems together into a single functional unit will represent the culmination of the project."

NEWBORN aims to deliver one of the world's most powerful hydrogen-electric aircraft propulsion systems of its kind. The Gorizia campaign will determine whether the assembled hardware performs as a coherent propulsion system rather than a collection of qualified components.

For now, the technology remains on the ground. No airframe, certification basis or entry-into-service date has been attached to the system, and the megawatt-class benchmark — while significant for fuel-cell aviation — remains an order of magnitude below the power of the turboprops and turbofans flying today. The Gorizia tests will show whether the consortium's integration claim holds under load.