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STORY: This electric aircraft just completed the world's first public flight using liquid hydrogen.

TEST PILOT JOHANNES GARBINO-ANTON: "It's super quiet, no vibration. And you can tell it's efficient by just listening to it."

Hydrogen flight is one of several competing technologies being explored, as the aviation industry aims for net-zero emissions by 2050.

The world’s aviation industry accounted for over 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2021.

According to German-based developer H2FLY - this flight may have been the breakthrough needed to prove that hydrogen-powered aviation is the future.

Liquid hydrogen can be produced from solar and wind energy - making it emission-free.

It also allows the plane to fly for double the amount of time.

The plane's maximum range would be roughly 450 miles with gaseous hydrogen and around 950 with liquid hydrogen.

That’s enough to fly from Paris to Lisbon.

Here’s Josef Kallo, founder and CEO of H2FLY.

"This is a world's first using liquid hydrogen storage with a fuel cell and an electric motor to propel an aircraft. And this achievement shows us that it is possible not only to fly with hydrogen, which we have shown for hundreds times in the last couple of years, but also to go long range. So, the high density of the liquid hydrogen gives us the opportunity not only to fly emission-free, but also to fly long-range."

But a switch to hydrogen-powered engines comes with challenges for airlines including securing a ready supply produced from renewable energy, redesigning aircraft for large and heavy tanks and new infrastructure at airports.

Experts have told Reuters it would take 10 to 20 years to make a transition.

H2FLY is pressing ahead with its goals of sustainable air travel, though.

The company plans to build a 40-seater plane next that can fly about 1,200 miles and open a Hydrogen Aviation Center at Germany's Stuttgart Airport in 2024.