Common Hydrogen, the pioneering firm that flew {a partially} hydrogen-powered flight out of Moses Lake in March final 12 months, has burned by the $100 million it raised from buyers and gone bust.The corporate was one of some aiming to switch fossil-fuel powered flight with extra sustainable, emissions-free expertise, on this case utilizing hydrogen to energy the engines as a substitute of jet gas. Its achievement of a primary flight at Moses Lake was celebrated by Gov. Jay Inslee as one in every of Washington state’s clear power breakthroughs.In March, Quick Firm journal put Common on its record of “Most modern firms of 2024.” Final month, commerce journal Aviation Week reported that “behind the scenes, the zero-emissions startup is busy making ready to take propulsion-system testing to the following stage” and was prepping 10 new flight checks.However in a letter to shareholders Thursday, Common Hydrogen Chairman and CEO Mark Cousin wrote that the board has formally determined to wind up the corporate after efforts to lift additional financing from new buyers failed.“We have been unable to safe enough fairness or debt financing to proceed operations and equally have been unable to safe an actionable provide for a sale of the enterprise or comparable strategic exit transaction,” Cousin wrote.
He stated the corporate lately approached present buyers to take part in a rights providing however discovered inadequate curiosity.“We’re deeply pleased with the work the workforce has carried out to create the primary commercially viable hydrogen aviation ecosystem,” Cousin’s letter concluded. “It’s our honest hope that these efforts will stay on as a part of a future entity.”Limitations to successUniversal Hydrogen was based by Paul Eremenko, a clean-energy visionary who previously labored as chief expertise officer at Airbus, on the idea of his perception that local weather change considerations create an existential disaster for air transport within the a long time forward.His charisma and technical experience bolstered the corporate’s startup part fundraising in Silicon Valley. Eremenko remains to be listed as CEO on the corporate web site, however through electronic mail he stated he left on the finish of April.He stated personal fairness corporations finally cooled to the idea on account of larger rates of interest and fixed fears of an impending recession.An extra headwind was the nearing U.S. election. “If [Donald] Trump have been to win, buyers noticed a major threat that the large inexperienced hydrogen subsidy enacted as a part of the Biden Inflation Discount Act would disappear,” Eremenko wrote.
Paperwork considered by The Seattle Occasions present that negotiations for $20 million in funding from a Saudi funding fund fell by.In a last-ditch try to save lots of the corporate, Eremenko stated administration tried to merge with a regional airline that might retrofit its planes with hydrogen energy.The paperwork present that airline was Florida-based Silver Airways. Silver has been shedding cash for the previous 12 months and funding its ongoing operations with debt, the paperwork state.“I’m unhappy to listen to that the merger didn’t come to fruition and Common Hydrogen is now liquidating,” Eremenko stated.The letter to shareholders is signed by Cousin, Common’s former chief expertise officer, within the CEO function. He was not instantly reachable Saturday.The limitations to Common’s success have been at all times immense. The Los Angeles-based firm needed to each engineer a hydrogen-powered propulsion system and create from scratch a brand new logistics infrastructure that would ship the hydrogen gas at airports.
It additionally needed to cope with the truth that hydrogen gas takes up much more area on the airplane than jet gas, decreasing room for passengers.One other enormous barrier is that Common’s mission trusted a big, dependable provide of what’s generally known as “inexperienced hydrogen.” Inexperienced hydrogen must be produced utilizing electrical energy from renewable sources akin to wind or photo voltaic to make the method emission-free. Many of the hydrogen used right now is produced from pure fuel in a course of excessive in carbon-dioxide emissions. Little or no inexperienced hydrogen is at the moment produced, and scaling it up will take giant investments.Common’s workforce designed its hydrogen-powered propulsion system so it could possibly be retrofitted on regional airplanes. And it labored on creating an ecosystem at airports whereby hydrogen could be delivered by vehicles in giant cylindrical modules that could possibly be loaded immediately onto the planes.In March 2023 at Moses Lake, a small crowd of buyers and press watched a De Havilland Canada Sprint 8-300 turboprop retrofitted by Common Hydrogen take off in a quick pioneering flight aimed toward proving the expertise viable.
On that flight, one engine was powered by a hydrogen gas cell, the opposite by common jet gas.Common later that 12 months moved its flight operations to Mojave, Calif.In the meantime, throughout the Atlantic in Toulouse, France, Common was retrofitting a bigger regional airplane, the ATR 72, to develop the detachable modules of liquid hydrogen that could possibly be transported by truck. The thought was that this might create the infrastructure essential to ship hydrogen to airports around the globe.Cousin’s letter advised shareholders that the French unit of the corporate can even be liquidated.Eremenko stated he’s proud that whereas Common fell quick it achieved “extraordinary technical feats on an insanely aggressive timeline.”
“I hope that our efforts kind the muse for the way forward for carbon-free flight,” he wrote.The demise of Common leaves only one main participant aiming to energy planes with hydrogen: ZeroAvia.Additionally headquartered in California, ZeroAvia has a analysis and improvement facility at Paine Discipline in Everett, the place a workforce of about 40 individuals is engaged on producing the hydrogen propulsion system.
Dominic Gates:
206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com; Dominic Gates is a Pulitzer Prize-winning aerospace journalist for The Seattle Occasions.