A startup co-founded by a Ukrainian American sends a hydrogen airliner on its first flight

Universal Hydrogen, a Los Angeles-based startup, has successfully completed the first, 15-minute flight of a hydrogen regional airliner, the company announced in a press release. The turboprop is the largest hydrogen fuel cell-powered airplane ever to take to the skies and the largest airplane to cruise principally on hydrogen.

“Today will go down in the history books as the true start to the decarbonization of the global airline industry,” the press release reads.

Universal Hydrogen was founded in early 2020 by a group of experienced engineers and innovators with the intention to decarbonize aviation and put the industry on a trajectory to meet Paris Agreement obligations.

One of the company’s co-founders and its CEO is Paul Eremenko, a Ukrainian American.

Paul was born in 1979 in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to a family of Ukrainian mathematician Alexandre Eremenko. When the boy was 13, the family emigrated to the United States.

Paul studied aeronautics at MIT and Caltech and law at Georgetown. Before Universal Hydrogen, he served as CTO of Airbus and United Technologies Corporation (UTC), leading both companies aggressively toward electrification. He is the founder of Acubed, Airbus’ Silicon Valley innovation center.

In 2015, Fortunes named Paul Eremenko one of the Top-10 Tech Leaders.