Evaluating readiness for hydrogen in the United States aviation industry from a policy lens

The paper considers the policy implications related to the way hydrogen operations have been depicted across the key challenges of production, distribution, and storage as well as specific guidance provided for the aviation industry. Among the alternative fuels under consideration for future U.S. aircraft fleets, many analysts view hydrogen as cost-effective and efficiently scalable. Given hydrogen’s potential as an energy source, there has been an increase in technical redesigns of aircraft to accommodate the relationship between hydrogen storage propulsion and energy systems along with experimentation with commercial aircraft models, culminating in an expansion of contemporary flight tests. Using a balanced readiness assessment model, this paper evaluates policies undertaken by the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to promote hydrogen between 2000 and 2025. The sample of 13 policy documents revealed an imbalance in coverage related to operational maturity on aircraft, in contrast to the high degree of readiness for hydrogen across production, distribution, and storage domains. For aviation, a geometric mean for Technological Readiness is assessed at a level 4, Market Readiness at level 5; Regulatory Readiness at level 5; Acceptance Readiness at level 4, and Organizational Readiness at level 5. After the initial cross-stakeholder evaluation, the sample is mapped onto the Gartner Hype Cycle, where early innovation has occurred and hydrogen operations are ready for committed development. Critically, the imbalanced operational coverage of policies assessed in this sample was immediately followed by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 , which explicitly prioritizes the connection of hydrogen research to aviation operations.