Universal Hydrogen has tested a 40-seater Dash-8 passenger plane with a hydrogen fuel cell engine. The flight lasted 15 minutes.
Engadget writes about it.
The innovative engine was installed only on the left side of the aircraft, while a standard turboprop engine was used on the right wing for flight safety. The pilots used a turbine engine for take-off, and then the flight continued on hydrogen power. The plane rose 1,066 meters into the sky.
Universal Hydrogen
The company called the flight "historic" and said it "aims to become North Americaʼs first zero-emissions airline." However, there are still many potential problems, because the energy density of hydrogen is about a quarter less than that of conventional jet fuel. There is very little infrastructure for working with hydrogen fuel, and it is also difficult to work with it due to the extreme danger of explosion.
However, Universal Hydrogen is confident that they have every chance of getting a certificate for passenger flights by 2025.
"Our business model solves the chicken-and-egg problem between hydrogen aircraft and hydrogen infrastructure, developing them in parallel and with a unique low-cost approach," said CEO and co-founder Paul Eremenko.
- Pavlo (Paul) Eremenko was born in 1980 in Kharkiv in the family of mathematician Oleksandr Eremenko. At the age of 13, he emigrated to the USA with his parents. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California University of Technology and Georgetown University. He worked at Google and Motorola, as well as at the research agency DARPA, a structural division of the Pentagon. He was the chief technical director of the Airbus Group corporation.