German regional jet to fly with hydrogen in 2025

If you live in the Stuttgart area, you can sometimes see a special airplane in the sky. The HY4, with a wingspan of a good 21 meters, has a double fuselage with two passenger cabins, something you rarely see. What is special, however, is inside: the plane is the first four-seater to take off with a fuel cell drive. The test aircraft is from H2Fly, a Stuttgart-based aviation start-up that has flown pretty much under the radar for a long time. The founders are probably more advanced with their technology than any other aviation company. A hydrogen-powered aircraft – Industry giant Airbus does not intend to have the first demonstrator ready until the middle of the decade. “We’ve been flying since 2008,” says Josef Kallo, founder and managing director of H2Fly.