Big week for hydrogen aviation

If you are bullish on hydrogen as the future of aviation decarbonization (not every one is convinced!) this has been quite a good week.

A few days ago we learned that Connect Airlines, a new Canadian airline that plans to operate from Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport, is buying hydrogen fuel cell kits from Universal Hydrogen to retrofit 12 Dash-8 Q400 aircraft and an additional 12 kits for other types of aircraft. Connect (or its parent company Waltzing Matilda Aviation) are going to invest in Universal’s new $62M funding round.

Some interesting marketing elements to highlight of this project: the use of the term “Greenjet” to refere to its Dash-8 aircraft (which are actually turboprops!) and the aim to be labelled as “America’s first green airline” as well as the filing of this initiatives under a dedicated “Project Zero” label.

And just yesterday, a big endorsement arrived for ZeroAvia’s hydrogen powertrain, in the form of an order from no less than United Airlines (an airline that has also been active in the Advanced Air Mobility field). The US airline is going to invest $35M in ZeroAvia’s next round, and place an order (a conditional purchase agreement, to be more exact) for 50 powertrains, plus another 50 optional.

UPDATE: shortly after publishing the first version of this post, a new announcement came through, also concerning ZeroAvia, which is partnering with De Havilland Canada to develop a hydrogen-electric engine program for its flagship Dash 8-400 Aircraft.

The MOU the two companies have signed involves De Havilland Canada getting 50 options to purchase ZeroAvia’s future 2MW powertrain (the ZA2000) and provide support for certification and marketing. ZeroAvia will be responsible to create the flight demonstrator. Interestingly, the agreement contemplates both linefit and retrofit options for the Q400 fleet.

This is also the same aircraft type that is at the center of the project to develop a hydrogen-powered regional airliner announced last October by ZeroAvia and Alaska Airlines. So all fits.

For further reference, you can check out the podcasts we did with Universal Hydrogen’s co-founder, Jason Chua and ZeroAvia’s CFO, Katya Akulinicheva.