Not a very good news on the efforts of aviation industry to make flights carbon neutral. Universal Hydrogen, a startup of hydrogen aviation, has been wound up owing to dried up funding.
The company, backed by GE Aviation, Airbus Ventures, Toyota Ventures, JetBlue Ventures, and American Airlines, as well as several of the world’s largest green hydrogen producers and top-tier financial investors, has now burned through the $100 million it raised from investors and gone bust.
Universal Hydrogen made its mark in March 2023 when it flew a modified De Havilland Dash 8-300 turboprop with a hydrogen-fueled electric propulsion system mounted on the plane’s right wing.
The system incorporated a megawatt-class motor built by Everett, Wash.-based MagniX. The engine on the left side was left unconverted to serve as a backup.
The Seattle Times cited a letter sent to shareholders on July 27 by Mark Cousin, the startup’s chairman and CEO. Cousin’s letter said the company’s executives were
“unable to secure sufficient equity or debt financing to continue operations and similarly were unable to secure an actionable offer for a sale of the business or similar strategic exit transaction,” according to the newspaper.
In March 2023, Universal Hydrogen carried out its First test flight of the world's biggest hydrogen fuel cell airliner, and showed a promise towards the Sustainable Aviation Energey solutions.
On the occasion of the maiden flight, Representatives from Connect Airlines and Amelia, the US and European launch customers for the hydrogen airplanes, respectively, were on hand to witness the historic flight.
The company also had a rapidly growing order book, today totaling 247 aircraft conversions from 16 customers worldwide, totaling over $1 billion in conversions backlog and over $2 billion in fuel services over the first ten years of operation.
Jon Gordon, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder of Universal Hydrogen said in a Linkedin post.
“Despite everyone’s best efforts, UH2 proved unable to secure additional funding to move forward,” “Perhaps we were just too early. Perhaps we couldn’t convince the world that hydrogen, and not just SAF, are necessary for the future of aviation. Time will tell.
“Nonetheless, I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved, and grateful to the 100s of engineers, and investors, that supported our efforts. It was nothing short of heroic. We demonstrated the feasibility of hydrogen aviation at a commercially significant scale, with 13 successful flights."
"We obtained Phase 1 certification from the FAA, and garnered interest from 17 airlines across 12 countries. We did this together.”
According to the report in the Seattle Times:
“The company was one of a few aiming to replace fossil-fuel powered flight with more sustainable, emissions-free technology, in this case using hydrogen to power the engines instead of jet fuel.
Its achievement of a first flight at Moses Lake was celebrated by Gov. Jay Inslee as one of Washington state’s clean energy breakthroughs.
“In March, Fast Company magazine put Universal on its list of “Most innovative companies of 2024.” Last month, trade magazine Aviation Week reported that “behind the scenes, the zero-emissions startup is busy preparing to take propulsion-system testing to the next level” and was prepping 10 new flight tests.
“But in a letter to shareholders Thursday, Universal Hydrogen Chairman and CEO Mark Cousin wrote that the board has formally decided to wind up the company after efforts to raise further financing from new investors failed.”
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