Lift-off for ‘guilt-free flight’: Rolls-Royce and easyJet hail first successful hydrogen jet engine test
Rolls-Royce and easyJet have completed the world’s first successful ground test of a modern hydrogen-powered aircraft engine.
It took place at a Ministry of Defense site at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, using a converted Rolls-Royce jet engine, the companies said yesterday.
Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “The UK is leading the global transition to guilt-free flying.”
Rolls-Royce and easyJet have completed the world’s first successful ground test of a modern hydrogen-powered aircraft engine
Rolls-Royce and easyJet have teamed up this year to pioneer the use of hydrogen as aircraft fuel from the mid-2030s.
The successful test used so-called ‘green’ hydrogen – generated with renewable wind and tidal power at a site in the Orkney Islands.
Shapps said: “It’s a real British achievement.”
Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini said it was an “exciting step” in a project “that could help reshape the future of flight”.
But the company has acknowledged that hydrogen, which will require a completely different infrastructure than fossil fuels, will take decades to build.
In the meantime, he is working on the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
