To carry out the retrofit under the best possible conditions, the American start-up asked Cetim to fully recreate the digital mock-up of an airplane. Watch the high level scan in a new video !
No retrofit without a digital mock-up! To convert a regional aircraft (in this case an ATR 72) to hydrogen by replacing its engines and its kerosene tanks with a kit made up of a fuel cell combined with electric motors, Universal Hydrogen must first completely scan the aircraft. To do so, the Californian start-up which has a European subsidiary in Toulouse, France, enlisted the know-how of Cetim Sud-Ouest.
“One of our current challenges is not having access to manufacturer data, explains Tim Down, Universal Hydrogen’s ATR Conversion Project Manager. We have to understand the aircraft as it is before modifying it. This is why we hired Cetim to help us scan the airplane in 3D, to create what is termed as a digital mock-up of the plane before modifying it.”
The aim was to have a 3D model of the aircraft before modification in order to anticipate the changes to be made and to provide the international safety authorities with the necessary information for the certification.
“This has been a true catalyst for the development of our solutions specifically for the ATR”, adds François Leneveu, Universal Hydrogen’s Sales Director for Europe and Africa.
The video “Universal Hydrogen – 3D scanning for aircraft retrofit” is online on the Cetim France YouTube channel.
