MTU Aero Engines, aircraft manufacturers, and industry are working closely together in order to bring climate-friendly hydrogen technologies to aviation and to build up the required infrastructure. Hydrogen has the potential to revolutionize aviation by converting it by fuel cells into power for electric motors. Hydrogen enables the road for emission-free flights. Modified gas turbines powered directly by hydrogen combustion do not emit any carbon dioxide. However, the residual nitrogen emissions have to be reduced to a minimum by technological means, too. Using Hydrogen based sustainable alternative fuels produced via the power-to-liquid or sun-to-liquid methods, even the existing aircraft fleet can run on a virtually climate-neutral basis. In order to take the Paris Agreement goals seriously and keep global warming below two degrees we need to develop greener technologies more aggressively and much faster than before. Therefore we have to fully express the potential of hydrogen for aviation. Propulsion systems based on fuel cells, electric motors and cryotanks for liquid hydrogen stored at minus 253 degrees Celsius need to be integrated into aircrafts which is a challenging task, as they will still have to fulfill the same high safety standards as today. And last but not least, there is the demand of a worldwide new infrastructure which must enable the delivery of large quantities of hydrogen to the aircrafts.

A detail understanding for Hydrogen induced failure mechanism and the influence on component lifetime must be evaluated for our used materials to enable the usage of Hydrogen in aviation safely. The phenomenon of Hydrogen induced embrittlement and influence on crack propagation rates under different Hydrogen containing conditions need new test methods and a broad fundamental research and interdisciplinary networks in the research community to solve our climate problems purposeful, common, effective and fast. The presentation should give a short insight in our upcoming challenges, the goal technology, and the resultant material test requirements.