Sustainable aviation, made in Hamburg: Thousands of engineers, designers and businesspeople are working tirelessly at the world's third biggest civil aviation cluster to make carbon-neutral commercial flight a reality. We explore the stories, explain the technologies, meet the people and discuss the challenges - join us on this exciting journey.
Flight paths to sustainability: Cutting-edge climate and contrails research at DLR
Send us a text Can smarter flight paths help save the climate? In this episode of Hamburg Aviation Green, we explore why adjusting routes by just a few kilometres could massively cut climate heating effects of aviation – and why this isn’t happening yet. Together with Alexander Lau from the Institute of Air Transport at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), we dig into the science behind contrails, climate effects, and the barriers to change. One line that stuck with us: “Innovation isn’t always...
24 Apr 2025
Hamburg Airport on the Path to Sustainability
Send us a text In our latest podcast, we speak with Julian Klaaßen, an environmental engineer at Hamburg Airport, about the ambitious plans to achieve fossil-free operations by 2035. Here are some highlights: Net Zero 2035: Since 2009, the airport has been working on reducing emissions and has already cut 80% of them. The goal is to be completely fossil-free by 2035. A new wind park: The airport plans to build its own wind park to generate 100% green electricity, investing €70m Gr...
27 Mar 2025
Hydrogen and New Aircraft Designs: How DLR is exploring the next aircraft generation in Hamburg
Send us a text We’re back in the air – Season 2 is here! …and now you can watch us too! What will it really take to make aviation sustainable? In the second season of Hamburg Aviation Green, we’re taking another deep dive into the big questions – and even bigger solutions. Our first guest: Björn Nagel, Director of the German Aerospace Center's Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics, based in Hamburg at ZAL Center for Aeronautical Research. From hydrogen breakthroughs to the unexpec...
13 Nov 2023
Hydrogen Aviation: The Chances, The Costs, The Future
What links Airbus' ZEROe project with Germany's salt caverns? Hydrogen. A promising carbon-free fuel, it's an attractive energy vector for Hamburg's future energy needs. Industry and the City of Hamburg are investing heavily in hydrogen infrastructure and research. Moving from fossil aviation fuels to hydrogen is going to be a complex, costly business. According to a recent study by Transport and Environment, the price tag of transitioning aviation to hydrogen in the EU could be up to €3...
15 Aug 2023
Hydrogen Aviation Lab: Pushing forward H2 adoption in Hamburg
H2 is on a roll: Hydrogen seems to be gaining traction as a fuel in aviation, at least in Europe. From successful test flights by ZeroAvia to recent updates to Germany's national hydrogen strategy - which doubled the production target for green H2 by 2030 - the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together. More and more airports are collaborating on H2 infrastructure in the 2030s. But what problems still need to be solved about refuelling passenger aircraft with liquid hydrogen, a cryogeni...
27 Jun 2023
Cutting through the hype around sustainable aviation
What will be the single most important technology in decarbonising aviation over the next 20-30 years? Dr Ivan Terekhov, Director of Research Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub has the answer. In this podcast he talks - among many other fascinating topics - about his team's recent hype cycle analysis and what it reveals about technology readiness for decarbonising aviation. A long-time Hamburg resident who has studied and worked in the city for many years including stints at German Aero...
13 Apr 2023
Life Cycle Assessments: A key to a greener future?
In February 2023, the Brazilian government sank a retired aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean. Scrapping the rusting hulk in the usual way had became difficult and prohibitively costly, the Brazilian government decided, in part because hazardous materials like asbestos used in the boat's construction had pushed up disposal costs.The episode is an extreme example of a common problem: how can designers of large, complex machines take into account the overall environmental impact of construct...
21 Mar 2023
FairCraft: A radical new sustainable aircraft cabin
Develop a truly sustainable cabin concept that saves weight, prioritises recycling and make passengers more comfortable: that's the ambitious brief for FairCraft, a radical new cabin concept that uses textiles and other easily recyclable materials to push the boundaries of cabin design. Designed to pursue all three of these goals at once, FairCraft is one of six projects funded by the city of Hamburg in 2022 via its GATE programme that supports innovation toward reducing the environmental foo...
3 Feb 2023
Start-Ups: Faster Paths to Net Zero
While the aviation industry aims to reach net zero by 2050, many of the technologies needed to get there are still years or even decades away. What role can start ups and start up culture play in accelerating the process and getting those crucial developments available faster? How can we actively harness the creativity of young businesspeople and researchers? Are start ups better at innovation than corporations? How can government create better conditions for start ups to flourish? Answering ...
8 Dec 2022
Making airports more sustainable
How can changes in airport operations contribute to aviation's goal of reaching net zero? What role should offsets play? What can airports do to decarbonise? Has the COVID pandemic influenced the conversation around sustainable aviation? These were among the many pressing questions we discussed on this episode with Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO at Hamburg Airport. With many years of experience in aviation both at airlines and at northern Germany's largest airport, Michael brings his own personal...
11 Nov 2022
Accelerating innovation toward Net Zero
Welcome to this podcast series! Our first outing is with Roland Gerhards, CEO of ZAL Center for Aeronautical Research in Hamburg. Roland is a veteran of the aviation industry, having worked at Airbus for 15 years on the A380, A350 and A330 programmes. ZAL is one of the world's foremost centers for applied aviation research, it's co-owned by Airbus, Lufthansa Technik, the German Aerospace Center, the City of Hamburg as well as a consortium of ZAL members. In this episode Roland gives insights ...
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