World premiere: Air Liquide contributes to the first piloted electric flight powered by liquid hydrogen

The H2FLY demonstrator aircraft took off from Maribor airport in Slovenia on September 7, 2023, carrying a liquid hydrogen tank designed and manufactured by Air Liquide advanced Technologies teams. A world premiere!

As part of the European HEAVEN project, Air Liquide has teamed up with H2FLY, a start-up developing hydrogen-electric propulsion systems for aviation, to upgrade its HY4 with a liquid hydrogen tank.

Originally, the HY4 demonstrator ran on gaseous hydrogen, but tests showed that the high pressures required would make the demonstrator too heavy to be used for commercial aviation. "A liquid hydrogen tank is up to ten times lighter," explains Pierre Crespi, Innovation Director, Air Liquide advanced Technologies. This is why Air Liquide has developed a 290-liter liquid hydrogen tank for use on the HY4 aircraft.

After its integration on the HY4 aircraft, H2FLY and Air Liquide teams actively collaborated to test all the aircraft's functionalities, including full-power tests and the liquid hydrogen refueling techniques developed by Air Liquide teams for on-airport implementation.

On D-Day, the test flights went according to plan, confirming that it was possible to double the aircraft's range using liquid hydrogen.

The success of this first piloted flight demonstrates the full potential of liquid hydrogen for aviation.

To go further :

H2Fly press release

The project in video