French aerospace giant has not put money into its partner but sees joint research efforts as a means to generate additional funding.
Safran has detailed the scope of its collaboration with fuel cell powertrain developer ZeroAvia but has confirmed that it is not investing financially in the UK firm.
Disclosed on 17 July, the partnership is “dedicated to hydrogen-electric propulsion technologies for aviation”.
However, the pair offered little detail on the precise nature of the agreement, save that they would “investigate in particular collaboration on advanced high-temperature fuel cells”.
Although low-temperature fuel cells – like those ZeroAvia is using for its ZA200 and ZA600 powertrains – are sufficient for small aircraft applications, achieving the outputs needed to power larger commercial turboprops or jets will require high-temperature (HT) stacks.
As part of its restructuring earlier this year, ZeroAvia changed its strategy to focus on the near-term development of the ZA200, alongside prioritising research and development of HT fuel cells and liquid hydrogen fuel infrastructure.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at July’s Farnborough air show, Safran chief technology officer Eric Dalbies said ZeroAvia’s change of tack brought the pair into greater alignment on HT fuel cell technology.
He says the pact will initially focus on overcoming key “roadblocks” – the issues that “have to be alleviated if we want to have a chance later on to make it possible”.
Initial talks between the two companies showed they shared “the same vision of the big difficulties”, he says, particularly around the construction of the stacks – the membrane electrode assembly technology that is critical to increasing power levels.
But despite the shared areas of interest, the pair will not merge their overall technology development strategies, says Dalbies.
“We have identified in our plan what were the points that directly connect with the topics where ZeroAvia has the same plan, or can leverage skills we don’t have in house, because they have developed some skills on electrochemistry, for instance, about this membrane electrode assembly.”
Notably, Safran’s future roadmap also includes the combustion of hydrogen in a turbine engine, something outside of ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric scope.
Light partnership
Dalbies describes the relationship as a “light partnership, but very pragmatic… there’s no capitalistic aspect behind this”.
“It is not a brand new plan – it’s how to maximise the efficiency of the plans we have,” he says.
Early areas of focus will include joint testing of various membrane electrode assemblies and the merits of different thermal management solutions.
“They have gone the air-cooled path. We have gone the liquid-cooled path. Now let’s share this and look if we can make a comprehensive assessment of their merits.”
Although shying away from complete alignment of their technology roadmaps, a “comprehensive” agreement to tackle jointly areas of mutual interest will help to attract additional public and private investment, says Dalbies.
This will be vital for ZeroAvia which earlier this year was forced to scale back its operation and restructure in the face of funding shortfalls.
“It is a much more attractive thesis with the technical audit of Safran on top of it to convince third parties to invest if they have to raise additional funds.
“It’’s a way to attract money for ZeroAvia – both public funding and private money.”
But, he stresses, Safran has not injected money into its new partner, instead using its own self-funded research and development spending “to leverage additional external funding for ZeroAvia”.
“That’s the best investment we can make without putting an additional euro in it. I already have a budget line for this [research], so, why not maximise the efficiency of it?
“If I can put it in a joint plan that attracts additional funds I could not attract on my side just with the Safran plan, that’s the best use of the money I can make.”
Targeted approach
Safran does have an investment arm – Safran Corporate Ventures (SCV) – which has previously backed companies involved in hydrogen propulsion, including Cranfield Aerospace Solutions.
And while there is no financial element to Safran’s collaboration with ZeroAvia, it was SCV that first identified the developer’s potential.
“The beauty of our corporate venture business is that it’s not just to invest; it’s to scout the ecosystem of start-ups.
“But by scouting this ecosystem, we know the potential partners that can, at the moment in their history, not lead to a corporate investment but lead to a partnership.”
ZeroAvia had been “scouted for years”, he says, with exploratory talks between the pair ongoing for the last three or four years.
However, these became deeper in late 2025, prior to ZeroAvia’s change of strategy and subsequent change of chief executive, Dalbies notes.
For its part, ZeroAvia reiterates the partnership’s focus on high-temperature fuel cells. “It’s great to have a technology partner that’s leading into those big engines in the future,” says chief strategy officer James McMicking.
Its focus is “on our core capabilities now and bringing in partners that will complement them”, he says; the agreement with Safran “demonstrates that complementarity”.
While both sides have strong expertise in different aspects of the high-temperature fuel cell system, “to make this happen is going to require partnerships like this – we have done things they haven’t and vice-versa”.
McMicking says there will be “more to follow” on the agreement, with a roadmap to be “drawn up together over the next 18 months”.
In the meantime, ZeroAvia’s immediate focus is bringing its 200kW ZA200 powertrain to “commercial status as fast as possible”.
This marries a fuel cell system from PowerCell – integrated and made flight-worthy by ZeroAvia – with third-party electric motors and is intended for uncrewed civil or defence applications.
“We are hopeful that within the next few months we will enter into firm commercial contracts,” says McMicking.
ZeroAvia on 8 July announced a separate agreement with the UK’s Marshall Aerospace to explore hydrogen‑electric capability for future defence applications.
The post Safran CTO details scope of ZeroAvia collaboration first appeared on FlightGlobal.