The successful maiden flight of ZeroAvia’s 19-seater hydrogen-electric-powered jet marks an additional step forward towards zero emissions flights, according to a press release released last week. British-American aircraft developer ZeroAvia completed a 10-minute test flight last week, making it the largest hydrogen-electric powered aircraft to have successfully taken flight. The project — which is part of the UK’s HyFlyer II program and is backed by the UK government’s ATI Programme — includes among its partners green hydrogen-fueling provider EMEC Hydrogen and Aeristech, a developer of power dense and air compressor solutions.

Could we be seeing hydrogen-powered commercial flights soon? The company will work to deliver commercial routes using the technology by 2025, founder and CEO Val Miftakhov said, the statement notes. ZeroAvia has raised upward of USD 140 mn in funding from the likes of United Airlines, American Airlines, and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, in addition to 1.5k pre-orders for its fuel-cell systems, reports MIT Technology Review. It has received GBP 12.3 mn from the British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Aerospace Technology Institute, and Innovate UK.

Aviation is increasingly looking to hydrogen to lower its carbon footprint: Rolls-Royce and easyJet tested the use of hydrogen in place of conventional aviation fuels to power jet aircraft last November. Although the results found that the engines could be started up and run at low speeds, the tests concluded that further research and aircraft redesign was needed to accommodate hydrogen fuel.