European aviation giant Airbus not the only manufacturer experimenting with hydrogen engines. German start-up H2Fly from Stuttgart is building its own hydrogen jet, aiming to see it on the air before Airbus, according to Deutsche Welle. Already in 2016, the German company conducted the first test flights of a four-seat aircraft. The HY4, as it was called, was then, according to the German Aerospace Center, the largest aircraft powered solely by hydrogen. Over the next few years, the size of the aircraft will increase tenfold. It’s a 40-seat Dornier with a range of 2,000 kilometers, says H2Fly chief Joseph Kahlo, hoping the aircraft will lay the foundation for commercial hydrogen aircraft operation. Similar tests are being conducted elsewhere, such as the US-British company ZeroAvia. In particular, in 2020 he made the first flight on a 6-seat aircraft, and in January he made the first test flights on a 9-seat one. For safety reasons, only one of the two engines was powered by hydrogen cells. The other was a conventional kerosene engine.

According to Bjorn Nagel of the German Aerospace Center, various start-ups as well as established manufacturers are aiming to bring hydrogen-powered aircraft with up to 19 seats to market over the next five years. He even believes that “short haul aircraft with about 70 seats could become a reality within the next decade.” Engine maker MTU Aero, for example, plans to produce hydrogen-powered engines for aircraft carrying 50 to 100 passengers over 1,800 kilometers. “With this range, two-thirds of the distances in Europe are covered,” its managing director Lars Wagner recently told the Münchner Merkur newspaper. For its part, Airbus aims to bring to market a 100-200-seat passenger aircraft by 2035 that will be equivalent to the medium-haul aircraft A320neo. Bjorn Nagel talks about a big challenge but looks optimistic.

He points out that there will be a few hydrogen planes first, which will make limited flights over short and medium distances. According to the German expert, in the first years a small number of airports with the appropriate infrastructure for refueling hydrogen aircraft will be required. “The situation at first will resemble interruptions in refueling of electric vehicles,” he explains.