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Pressemitteilung: Airbus and MTU Aero Engines to create a joint venture to develop a fully electric hydrogen fuel cell engine / Toulouse, France, 7 July 2026 – Airbus and MTU Aero Engines intend to deepen their collaboration by establishing a joint venture dedicated to the development and commercialisation of a fully electric hydrogen fuel cell engine. This upcoming milestone follows the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both companies at the Paris Air Show in June 2025. By establishing a dedicated and highly agile organisational set-up, the partners aim to accelerate technology development, design, testing and certification of a revolutionary propulsion system for aviation based on a hydrogen fuel cell. The new entity will be supported by Airbus and MTU with all their competences and through various engineering and manufacturing teams from both organisations. This non-binding agreement is subject to standard regulatory approvals and the completion of social processes at European and national levels. The new joint venture is expected to start operations in 2027. “Our planned joint venture is the next logical step in our shared vision of a hydrogen-based propulsion concept for aviation,” said Bruno Fichefeux, Head of Future Programmes at Airbus. “By pooling our respective technology and expertise into a dedicated entity, we are establishing a European powerhouse capable of transforming advanced research into industrialised, certifiable electric propulsion systems. This new company will help secure strategic sovereignty in the next generation of aviation technologies while strengthening our ability to achieve the long-term ZEROe ambition." (....)