Rolls-Royce and easyJet run a jet engine on pure hydrogen for the first time

Rolls-Royce and easyJet have completed what the two companies describe as the first full flight-cycle test of a modern commercial jet engine running on 100 per cent hydrogen, announced on 1 May 2026.

The test used a modified Pearl 15 engine, a business jet powerplant produced by Rolls-Royce and sized to power narrowbody commercial aircraft, at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Engineers ran the engine on gaseous hydrogen across a simulated flight cycle: start-up, take-off, cruise and landing, including operation at maximum power and under simulated fault conditions.

The result is the third distinct phase of a four-year programme. Rolls-Royce and easyJet first ran an AE2100 engine on 100 per cent hydrogen at Boscombe Down in the UK in 2022. A full annular Pearl combustor was subsequently tested at the German Aerospace Center in Cologne under conditions representing maximum take-off thrust. The Stennis campaign was the first time those components were integrated into a complete engine and run through a full simulated cycle.

The programme involved NASA, Tata Consultancy Services, and the UK Health and Safety Executive's Science and Research Centre in Buxton, Derbyshire, which built and tested the pressurised hydrogen infrastructure required for the test facility.

Adam Newman, chief engineer of Rolls-Royce's hydrogen demonstrator programme, said the campaign validated combustion, fuel system and control system technologies, and that the results would feed into future programmes, including the company's UltraFan engine, its next-generation high-bypass turbofan currently in development.

The gap between ground demonstration and a certified aircraft engine remains wide. No hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft has flown; no aircraft manufacturer has announced a firm hydrogen narrowbody programme; and the infrastructure required to store and distribute cryogenic or compressed hydrogen at commercial airports does not exist at scale. Rolls-Royce's own published roadmap does not project a hydrogen-capable commercial engine entering service before the mid-2030s at the earliest.

EasyJet, which carried more than 100 million passengers in 2025 and operates more than 350 aircraft across more than 1,000 routes, positions hydrogen as a long-term complement to fleet renewal, operational efficiency improvements, and sustainable aviation fuels. The airline's net-zero commitment runs to 2050.