Abstract: Hydrogen aircraft is an important development direction of the aviation industry to achieve green energy transformation. Airbus, Universal Hydrogen and other institutions are conducting research of hydrogen aircraft. Hydrogen fuel cell regional aircraft is one of the hottest development directions at the moment. Hydrogen-powered Dash-8 and Dornier-228 have completed their first flight and are expected to be put into commercial use by 2027. But now, the research of hydrogen regional aircraft in China mostly stays in technical exploration, and there are few studies on the overall design scheme of full-size regional aircraft platform. In this paper, a hydrogen fuel cell power retrofit design based on the turboprop regional aircraft platform is proposed, and the performance of the hydrogen fuel cell aircraft is analyzed by simulation method. According to the research in this paper, hydrogen fuel cell modified regional aircraft will use a hybrid energy system of liquid hydrogen fuel and lithium battery, powered by electric motors. Compared to jet fuel, the passenger capacity of the hydrogen aircraft using active hydrogen storage system will be reduced by 26.7%, the maximum range will be reduced by 43.3%, the flight efficiency will be increased by 5.1%, the carbon emission will be reduced by 87.5%, and the operating cost will be increased by 46.9%. And the passenger capacity of the aircraft using passive hydrogen storage system will be reduced by 13.3%, the maximum range will be reduced by 31.9%, the flight efficiency will be increased by 15.9%. When the hydrogen mass ratio exceeds 55%, the performance of hydrogen aircraft will surpass that of jet aircraft. According to the analysis results of this paper, although the current performance level of hydrogen aircraft lags behind jet aircraft, it still has full development potential, and the first application of hydrogen fuel cells in regional aircraft will take an important step in the development of sustainable aviation.

Key words: Hydrogen, Fuel cells, Aircraft, Hydrogen storage, Carbon emission, Costs, Civil aviation