A hydrogen storage tank for a hydrogen fueled aircraft. The tank has a wall made of layers of aerogel sections around a hard shell layer, sealed within a flexible outer layer, and having the air removed to form a vacuum. The periphery of each layer section abuts other sections of that layer, but only overlies the periphery of the sections of other layers at individual points. The wall is characterized by a thermal conductivity that is lower near its gravitational top than its gravitational bottom. The tank has two exit passageways, one being direct, and the other passing through a vapor shield that extends through the wall between two layers of aerogel. A control system controls the relative flow through the two passages to regulate the boil-off rate of the tank.

A heat insulator (10) is provided in a heat-insulating vessel for holding a substance having a temperature that is lower than ordinary temperature by at least 100 C. The heat insulator (10) includes a core material (14) and an outer wrapping material (13) for wrapping the core material (14). The core material (14) has a heat-insulating core material made of an open-cell resin. The outer wrapping material (13) is made of a metal thin plate. A peripheral edge of the metal thin plate is fixedly bonded. An inside of the outer wrapping material is vacuum-sealed.

A cryogenic fluid cylinder includes an inner vessel for holding cryogenic fluid, a cylindrically shaped outer vessel having a vertical longitudinal axis surrounds the inner vessel and forms an insulating space there between, and operating controls located on a top of the outer vessel. Customer or end user operating controls include a liquid-use valve for selectively dispensing liquid cryogen, a pressure-building valve for selectively controlling a pressure building circuit, and a gas-use valve for selectively dispensing cryogen gas. Supplier or maintenance personnel operating controls include an economizer regulator for selectively setting at least one desired pressure of the inner vessel, a vent valve for selectively venting cryogen fluid, and a vacuum pressure port for indicating vacuum pressure between the vessels. The end user controls are located on a front side of the outer vessel while the supplier controls are located on a rear side of the outer vessel.

A cryogenic fluid storage unit comprises: an internal reservoir, internally delimiting a storage volume for storing the cryogenic fluid, and an external reservoir inside which the internal reservoir is arranged. An intermediate space separates the internal reservoir from the external reservoir. A thermal insulation is interposed between the internal reservoir and the external reservoir. A a getter is received in a volume in fluidic communication with the intermediate space, and the external reservoir has an opening for extracting the getter, and a removable cover closes the opening.