Liquid hydrogen propulsion developer, Universal Hydrogen, has gone bust, citing a lack of funds. It burned through the US$100million funding it received from investors in just over four years.
Since it started in 2020, Universal Hydrogen enjoyed some notable success. It gained Phase 1 certification from the FAA, and in March 2023, flew its Dash 8-300 testbed ‘Lightning McClean’ – the largest regional airliner powered by liquid hydrogen – for 15 minutes at the Mojave Air and Space port. One of the aircraft’s turbine engines was replaced by Universal Hydrogen’s fuel cell-electric, megawatt powertrain. The other remained a conventional engine, fuelled by Jet-A.
The flight-test campaign was scheduled to finish in 2025, with the ATR72 selected as the passenger aircraft, converted to run on hydrogen and planned entry into service by 2026.
With 13 test flights under its wing, the start-up had announced its successful operation of…
