Universal Hydrogen partners with Deutsche Aircraft

Hydrogen aviation is getting quite a few endorsements this week or, shall we say, the concept of hydrogen capsules sponsored by Universal Hydrogen (“the Nespresso of hydrogen, as the startup’s founders like to portray it)

The announcement that the Californian startup, led by former Airbus CTO Paul Eremenko and co-founder Jason Chua (who was on the podcast not long ago talking about this ingenious technology) is partnering with Deutsche Aircraft comes right after signing letters of intent with 3 airlines: Icelandair (Iceland), Ravn (Alaska, US) and Air Nostrum (Spain).

Deutsche Aircraft is trying to revive a regional aircraft programme that had so far been met by limited commercial success. The Do328 turboprop (there is also a jet-powered version) is being re-engineered and rebranded as Do328eco as the company experiments with several concepts to make this legacy airframe a more environmentally friendly than other regional aircraft currently in this category.