Universal Hydrogen gets FAA go-ahead for maiden flight of hydrogen-fuelled aircraft

Universal Hydrogen has been granted a special airworthiness certificate in the experimental category by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the first flight of its hydrogen-powered regional aircraft. The FAA sign-off “clears the way for the first flight of the Dash 8-300 flying testbed which will take place at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington”, the company said. The flight will make the aircraft “by far the largest hydrogen fuel cell-powered airplane to take to the skies”, according to Universal Hydrogen, and second only to the 1988 USSR flight test of a Tupolev Tu-155 which had a jet