Fuel cell aircraft HY4 makes maiden flight

Developed primarily by Germany’s DLR Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, the twin-fuselage plane is the first four-seater aircraft in the world powered solely by a hydrogen fuel cell. Its power train consists of a hydrogen storage system, a low-temperature hydrogen fuel cell that converts hydrogen directly into electrical energy, and a lithium battery that covers peak power loads during take-off and ascent.

If the hydrogen the HY4 uses is generated via electrolysis using renewable energy, the aircraft can theoretically operate while generating zero emissions.

"For the foreseeable future, large passenger aircraft will continue to fly using conventional propulsion,” said André Thess, head of the DLR Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics.

“One of the major challenges for the coming decades, however, is bringing electromobility to the aviation industry and making the air transport system of the future carbon dioxide neutral. Our goal is to further improve the fuel cell power train and, in the long term, use it on regional aircraft with up to 19 passengers."