Joby-Backed Firm Completes Piloted Flights of Liquid Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft

The eVTOL manufacturer’s subsidiary H2Fly said the tests marked the world’s first such flights.

Jack Daleo

Friday, September 08, 2023 at 02:03 PM ET

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H2Fly’s HY4 demonstrator, powered by liquid hydrogen, takes flight in the skies over Slovenia. [Courtesy: H2Fly]

Key Takeaways:

Joby Aviation's subsidiary H2Fly achieved the world's first piloted flights of an electric aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen, demonstrating its potential to double range compared to gaseous hydrogen.
This milestone highlights liquid hydrogen's viability for medium- to long-range emissions-free flights, crucial for decarbonizing commercial aviation due to its higher energy density.
Despite the promise, hydrogen aviation faces significant challenges, including high production costs, potential emissions from its production, and complex, costly, and dangerous storage/transport issues for liquid hydrogen, alongside aircraft design and safety concerns.

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In 2021, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi developer Joby Aviation secretly acquired a company producing hydrogen aircraft fuel cell systems. This week, that company did something no other firm has done.

Joby subsidiary H2Fly on Thursday revealed it completed piloted flights of its four-seater HY4 demonstrator powered by liquid hydrogen, a milestone it says is the world’s first. The company made four takeoffs from an airfield in Maribor, Slovenia, using cryogenically stored liquid hydrogen to power a hydrogen-electric fuel cell system, which kept the aircraft in the sky for over three hours on one occasion.