Sustainable aviation company Universal Hydrogen has run out of money and is shutting down.
Universal Hydrogen co-founder Jon Gordon confirmed the move in a Sunday LinkedIn post. The Hawthorne, California-based startup is shutting down after completing a hydrogen-powered flight from Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake in March 2023.
The Seattle Times first reported the news. Universal Hydrogen didn't immediately respond to a request for more information.
"Perhaps we were just too early. Perhaps we couldn't convince the world that hydrogen, and not just (sustainable aviation fuels), are necessary for the future of aviation," Gordon wrote in the LinkedIn post. "Time will tell."
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Universal Hydrogen, founded in 2020, flew a retrofitted De Havilland Dash-8 powered by a megawatt-class hydrogen fuel cell over Moses Lake in central Washington last year after conducting high-speed runway tests at Grant County International Airport. The aircraft flew for 15 minutes and reached 3,500 feet. It also had a standard engine.
At the time, it was the largest plane to cruise principally on hydrogen fuel-cell technology, and Universal Hydrogen was targeting 2025 for commercial sales. The company, which had a development center in Moses Lake, was looking to retrofit existing planes rather than build new ones.
In 2021, Universal Hydrogen launched the Hydrogen Aviation Test and Service Center at Grant County International Airport, along with partners MagniX, Plug Power and AeroTEC. In June of 2023, the company moved its flight test center to Mojave Air & Space Port in California.
The Seattle Times cited a letter to shareholders from Universal Hydrogen chairman and CEO Mark Cousin saying the company couldn't secure financing to stay afloat. The report said Universal Hydrogen had a hard time gaining traction with investors due to high interest rates, fear of an impending recession and concerns around a second Donald Trump presidency, as funding to hydrogen technology could disappear if Trump takes office.
"I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved, and grateful to the 100s of engineers, and investors and partners, that supported our efforts," Gordon wrote in his LinkedIn post. "We demonstrated the feasibility of hydrogen aviation at a commercially significant scale, with 13 successful flights."
Hydrogen-electric aviation startup ZeroAvia is another company with local ties trying to make hydrogen-powered flight a reality. The Hollister, California-based company in April opened a 136,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at Paine Field in Everett, near its research and development facility.
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