Published on: 2026-04-05
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian language –
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Changsha, April 5 /Xinhua/ — A 7.5-ton unmanned cargo aircraft equipped with the AEP100 — an independently developed Chinese turboprop engine of the megawatt class, operating on pure hydrogen — successfully completed its first flight on Saturday at the airport of Chuzhou city, Hunan Province /Central China/.
This is the world’s first test flight of a megawatt-class turbofan engine running on hydrogen.
The engine operated normally and remained in good condition throughout the entire 16-minute test flight, reported Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), the engine developer. The aircraft covered 36 km at a speed of 220 km/h at an altitude of 300 meters. After completing all planned flight maneuvers, it returned safely.
AECC experts noted that the successful first flight indicates that China has created a complete technological chain in the field of hydrogen-fueled aviation engines—from key components to the integration of a full engine. They added that this achievement lays the foundation for the industrial application of hydrogen energy in aviation.
In the opinion of experts, as the cost of producing green hydrogen decreases, hydrogen aviation engines will demonstrate increasingly significant advantages in terms of economy and energy security. It is expected that hydrogen-powered aviation engine technology will first be applied in areas with low economic altitude, such as unmanned cargo transportation and logistics between islands, and then gradually spread to regional and major airliners.
This technology will contribute to the coordinated modernization of industrial clusters upstream, midstream, and downstream – from the production of environmentally clean hydrogen to the infrastructure for storage, transportation, and refueling, as well as highly technological equipment and new materials, thereby ensuring green, low-carbon, and high-quality development of China’s aviation industry, experts added. -0-
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