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H2FLY and Japan Airlines partner to bring sustainable hydrogen aviation to Japan

H2FLY has signed an agree­ment with Japan Air­lines and JAL Engi­neer­ing to research and eval­u­ate the fea­si­bil­i­ty of hydro­gen-elec­tric avi­a­tion in Japan.

The part­ner­ship rep­re­sents the com­pa­ny’s first expan­sion into the Asian mar­kets, where it will explore the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hydro­gen-fueled flights across Japan’s region­al routes. 

In the com­ing months, the par­ties will col­lab­o­rate on a study that explores the effi­ca­cy of hydro­gen-pow­ered fixed-wing air­craft in accor­dance with JAL’s com­mit­ment to reduc­ing emis­sions from com­mer­cial flights.

The study will eval­u­ate the pow­er­train require­ments need­ed for vary­ing dis­tances of flights and air­craft size, as well as tech­ni­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions accord­ing to JAL’s com­mer­cial oper­a­tions. H2FLY will sub­se­quent­ly test and val­i­date the find­ings of the study.

Pro­fes­sor Josef Kallo, CEO and co-founder of H2FLY, said: “At H2FLY, we have ded­i­cat­ed the past decade to mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant advance­ments in the devel­op­ment of our hydro­gen tech­nol­o­gy for air­craft. We are hon­oured to be col­lab­o­rat­ing with Japan Air­lines who are lead­ing the way in secur­ing a sus­tain­able future for the avi­a­tion indus­try.”

Since Japan launched its Clean Growth Strat­e­gy in 2020, the coun­try has pri­ori­tised its hydro­gen infra­struc­ture and devel­op­ment of hydro­gen air­craft. Ear­li­er this year, it was announced that the coun­try would invest $107 bil­lion in the hydro­gen sup­ply over the next fif­teen years. 

JAL Engi­neer­ing, also known as JALEC, is respon­si­ble for the line and heavy main­te­nance, devel­op­ment and con­trol of main­te­nance plan for the air­crafts oper­at­ed by JAL group air­lines, such as JAL, J‑AIR, Spring Japan and ZIPAIR Tokyo. 

Based at Tokyo Hane­da Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Nari­ta Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, and Osa­ka Ita­mi Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, JALEC pro­vides high-qual­i­ty main­te­nance ser­vice includ­ing engines and com­po­nents main­te­nance and sup­port­ing avi­a­tion safe­ty through exten­sive knowl­edge and advanced tech­ni­cal skill devel­oped by over years of expe­ri­ence.

Ryo Tamu­ra, Pres­i­dent of JALEC, said: “We high­ly admire the out­stand­ing tech­nol­o­gy of H2FLY. Through this part­ner­ship, we’re mov­ing for­ward to the real­iza­tion of hydro­gen-pow­ered flight in Japan. Our col­lab­o­ra­tion lets us lead and con­tribute to safe and sus­tain­able avi­a­tion in Japan.”

The agree­ment comes after H2FLY com­plet­ed the world’s first pilot­ed flight of liq­uid hydro­gen-pow­ered elec­tric air­craft in Sep­tem­ber 2023. 

The series of flights were com­plet­ed with H2FLY’s pilot­ed HY4 demon­stra­tor air­craft, fit­ted with a hydro­gen-elec­tric fuel cell propul­sion sys­tem and a liq­uid hydro­gen tank sys­tem, dou­bling the max­i­mum range of the HY4 air­craft from 750 km to 1,500 km. The cam­paign was the cul­mi­na­tion of Project HEAVEN, a Euro­pean-gov­ern­ment-sup­port­ed con­sor­tium, led by H2FLY. 

H2FLY con­tin­ues to lead the way in hydro­gen-elec­tric pow­er­train sys­tems for air­craft, build­ing and test­ing six gen­er­a­tions of pow­er­trains to date.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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