Universal Hydrogen has carried out a first flight of its Dash-8 40-passenger regional airliner using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion.
The 15-minute flight took place at Grant County International Airport in Washington and lasted 15 minutes conducted under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate, was the first in a two-year flight test campaign expected to culminate in 2025 with entry into passenger service of ATR 72 regional aircraft converted to run on hydrogen.
Representatives from Connect Airlines and Amelia, the US and European launch customers for the hydrogen airplanes, witnessed the flight, which was the first of two years of testing ahead of the expected entry into passenger service of ATR-72s running on hydrogen,
Universal has orders for 247 aircraft conversions from 16 customers and worth around $3bn over 10 years.
“Today will go down in the history books as the true start to the decarbonisation of the global airline industry and we at Connect Airlines are extremely proud of the role that we, as the first US operator, will play in leading the way with Universal Hydrogen,” said John Thomas, chief executive Connect Airlines.
“With this technology, and the improvement of government positive regulations I am confident that we can turn the tide of public sentiment and once again make aviation a shining beacon of technological optimism,” added Alain Regourd, president of Amelia.
“During the second circuit over the airport, we were comfortable with the performance of the hydrogen power-train, so we were able to throttle back the fossil fuel turbine engine to demonstrate cruise principally on hydrogen power,” said Alex Kroll, the pilot who flew the test.