Universal Hydrogen, pioneer of hydrogen-powered flight, goes bust

It also had to deal with the reality that hydrogen fuel takes up a lot more space on the airplane than jet fuel, reducing room for passengers.

Another huge barrier is that Universal’s project depended on a large, reliable supply of what’s known as “green hydrogen.”

Green hydrogen has to be produced using electricity from renewable sources such as wind or solar to make the process emission-free. Most of the hydrogen used today is produced from natural gas in a process high in carbon-dioxide emissions.

Very little green hydrogen is currently produced, and scaling it up will take large investments.

Universal’s team designed its hydrogen-powered propulsion system so it could be retrofitted on regional airplanes. And it worked on developing an ecosystem at airports whereby hydrogen would be delivered by trucks in large cylindrical modules that could be loaded directly onto the planes.

In March 2023 at Moses Lake, a small crowd of investors and press watched a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 turboprop retrofitted by Universal Hydrogen take off in a brief pioneering flight aimed at proving the technology viable.

On that flight, one engine was powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the other by regular jet fuel.

Universal later that year moved its flight operations to Mojave, Calif.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Toulouse, France, Universal was retrofitting a larger regional airplane, the ATR 72, to develop the removable modules of liquid hydrogen that could be transported by truck.

The idea was that this would create the infrastructure necessary to deliver hydrogen to airports around the world.

Cousin’s letter told shareholders that the French unit of the company will also be liquidated.

Eremenko said he is proud that while Universal fell short it accomplished “extraordinary technical feats on an insanely aggressive timeline.”

“I hope that our efforts form the foundation for the future of carbon-free flight,” he wrote.

While Airbus is working to develop an all-new hydrogen-powered plane for the 2030s, the demise of Universal leaves just one other major startup aiming to retrofit existing planes with hydrogen power: ZeroAvia.

Also headquartered in California, ZeroAvia has a research and development facility at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, where a team of about 40 people is working on producing the hydrogen propulsion system.