OCANA, Spain ~ US aircraft maker Boeing flew a plane that was powered by a hydrogen battery at the start of 2008 “for the first in the history of aviation”, a senior company official said on Thursday in Spain.

Boeing chief technology officer John Tracy said the development was “full of promises for a greener future” at a press conference at a Boeing research centre in the central Spanish town of Ocana.

“This is a historical technological success for Boeing,” he added.

The plane, which used propellers, flew in a straight line for about 20 minutes at an altitude of about 1,000 meters, Boeing said in a statement distributed at the press conference.

“Boeing announced today that it has, for the first time in aviation history, flown a manned airplane powered by hydrogen fuel cells,” it said.