Filling at Air Liquide's Grenoble Technologies Campus

H2FLY, a Stuttgart-based developer of hydrogen fuel cell systems for aeronautics, announced today that it has successfully passed ground-based liquid hydrogen filling tests with the newly developed liquid hydrogen tank integrated into its HY4 aircraft. These efforts are part of the European HEAVEN project, a consortium of five partners to demonstrate the feasibility of powering aircraft using cryogenic liquid hydrogen, led by H2FLY. The new liquid hydrogen storage system was designed and supplied by Air Liquide. The filling procedure was conducted in preparation for the upcoming coupling test, in which the liquid hydrogen storage system will be used. in which the liquid hydrogen storage system will be coupled with the fuel cell system to form a complete hydrogen-electric powertrain. H2FLY conducted the test campaign at Air Liquide's Grenoble Technologies Campus in Sassenage, France, in collaboration with Air Liquide.

Doubling the range of the HY4 aircraft

With this milestone, the consortium aims to demonstrate world-leading experience in liquid hydrogen refueling operations and in handling liquid hydrogen on board an aircraft. Josef Kallo, co-founder and CEO of H2FLY, said, "Today's successful ground refueling tests mark another step in our drive to double the range of our HY4 aircraft. This is a critical step for our upcoming flight test campaign this summer, which will demonstrate the feasibility of liquid hydrogen as a fuel for medium and long haul flights." This filling step follows the company's announcement in November 2022 that it would begin mechanical integration of Air Liquide's liquid hydrogen tank into H2FLY's fuel cell-powered HY4 aircraft, after the tank passed LH2's vibration and leakage tests in September 2022.