A Cotswold-based company is to mass produce hydrogen-powered aeroplane engines at a British factory.

ZeroAvia, the aviation innovation company, whose goal is to 'change the face of air travel', settled into its new home at Cotswold Airport at Kemble, Gloucestershire, last year.

Now, according to The Telegraph, ZeroAvia is aiming to secure a site to build the engines for regional aircraft by the end of the year, and hopes to have engines ready to ship to customers in 2024.

Possible locations include the South West of England and South Wales, which have established aviation centres.

The company is one of a handful close to releasing a product capable of flying medium-sized aircraft with no carbon emissions this decade.

Its engines use hydrogen fuel cells to burn the gas and produce an electric current, which is then used to power propellers to drive the aircraft, the Telegraph said.

If the hydrogen is made using green energy, no carbon is released. ZeroAvia intends to fit the engines to existing airframes.

ZeroAvia, which is based in California but has most of its employees in the UK, will store the fuel in tanks under pressure as a gas, rather than freezing it into a liquid, which is more energy dense but hard to store.

The first ZeroAvia engines are intended to be installed in planes with between nine and 19 seats by 2024. ZeroAvia hopes to fit the devices in turboprop planes with 40-90 passengers in 2026, and larger regional jets by 2028.

According to the Telegraph, the company has picked up a number of high-profile investors since it was founded in 2017.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines took part in a $35m (£29m) funding round in December, joining previous investors including Amazon's Climate Pledge fund and Shell on the share register.

The company is understood to still be in the early stages of choosing a site for a factory, with access to skilled workers and supplies likely to be the deciding factor.

Traditional manufacturers, start-ups and airlines alike are racing to find ways to cut their carbon output as part of the global push to reach net zero carbon emissions.

While the car industry already has electric vehicles on the road, the aviation industry is far behind and many solutions are at least a decade away.

Larger companies are hedging their bets, developing battery-powered solutions, tweaking jet engines to burn hydrogen directly and exploring hybrid-electric options to maximise efficiency of existing turbines.

They are also developing fuel from waste and plant products to act as a low-carbon stopgap while other technologies are invented, although this sustainable aviation fuel is currently five times more expensive than jet fuel.

Major players think that batteries will power the shortest journeys by air, and hydrogen will be used in smaller regional planes.

Long-haul travel is the toughest nut to crack and could well require a liquid hydrogen solution.

ZeroAvia declined to comment.