Universal Hydrogen Co., a California-based clean aviation company with plans to stand up manufacturing in Albuquerque, flew an airplane powered by its fuel cell electric powertrain Thursday, marking the first time the company has flown a hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft.
The flight out of the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, comes less than a month after Universal Hydrogen received a special experimental airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration and ran a taxi test of an aircraft retrofitted with its fuel cell powertrain.
The company used a 40-passenger regional airliner nicknamed Lightning McClean to conduct the flight.
It's the first flight in a two-year flight test campaign, according to a Thursday news release from Universal Hydrogen. The company wants to see aircraft retrofitted with its fuel cell conversion kit enter into passenger service by 2025.
Representatives from two of Universal Hydrogen's customers — Massachusetts-based Connect Airlines and France-based Amelia Airlines — were on hand for the flight, the release stated.
According to the release, 247 aircraft from 16 companies are currently booked to be converted with Universal Hydrogen's hydrogen fuel cell powertrains.
"The airplanes are converted to hydrogen using an aftermarket retrofit conversion kit, tackling the existing fleet rather than developing a brand new airplane," Paul Eremenko, Universal Hydrogen's CEO, said in a prepared statement. "And hydrogen fueling uses modular capsules compatible with existing freight networks and airport cargo handling equipment, making every airport in the world hydrogen-ready."
Universal Hydrogen wants to manufacture those modular capsules at a 50-acre, roughly $300 million facility on a parcel of land near the Albuquerque International Sunport, it announced last March. The company plans to break ground on that facility this year and start manufacturing in 2024, Jon Gordon, general counsel for Universal Hydrogen, previously told Albuquerque Business First.
