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Boeing Flies Hydrogen Fuel Cell Airplane
4 April 2008
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| Fuel cell airplane in flight. |
Boeing has flown a manned airplane powered by a 20 kW hydrogen fuel cell stack—an aviation first. The recent milestone is the work of an engineering team at Boeing Research & Technology Europe (BR&TE) in Madrid, with assistance from industry partners in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Earlier post.)
A two-seat Dimona motor-glider with a 16.3 meter (53.5 foot) wingspan was used as the airframe. Built by Diamond Aircraft Industries of Austria, it was modified by BR&TE to include a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor coupled to a conventional propeller.
Three test flights took place in February and March at the airfield in Ocaña, south of Madrid, operated by the Spanish company SENASA.
During the flights, the pilot of the experimental airplane climbed to an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level using a combination of battery power and power generated by hydrogen fuel cells. Then, after reaching the cruise altitude and disconnecting the batteries, the pilot flew straight and level at a cruising speed of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) for approximately 20 minutes on power solely generated by the fuel cells.
According to Boeing researchers, PEM fuel cell technology potentially could power small manned and unmanned air vehicles. Over the longer term, solid oxide fuel cells could be applied to secondary power-generating systems, such as auxiliary power units for large commercial airplanes. Boeing does not envision that fuel cells will ever provide primary power for large passenger airplanes, but the company will continue to investigate their potential, as well as other sustainable alternative fuel and energy sources that improve environmental performance.
BR&TE, part of the Boeing Phantom Works advanced R&D unit, has worked closely with Boeing Commercial Airplanes and a network of partners since 2003 to design, assemble and fly the experimental craft.
The group of companies, universities and institutions participating in this project includes:
Diamond Aircraft Industries (Austria)
SAFT (France)
Gore and MT Propeller (Germany)
Adventia, Aerlyper, Air Liquide Spain, Indra, Ingeniería de Instrumentación y Control (IIC), Inventia, SENASA, Swagelok, Técnicas Aeronauticas de Madrid (TAM), Tecnobit, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and the Regional Government of Madrid (Spain)
Intelligent Energy (UK)
UQM Technologies (USA)
April 4, 2008 in Aviation, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
Still behind the lithium-ion powered flights demonstrated several months ago.
Posted by: clett | Apr 4, 2008 3:52:23 AM
The batteries provide a margin of safety and I could see this in a UAV. This craft would be very quiet.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 4, 2008 6:44:03 AM
Use liquid methane instead.
Posted by: Jim | Apr 4, 2008 10:38:51 AM
You could use methanol. DMFCs are coming along and as long as you do not need much power for now, it might work.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 4, 2008 11:12:51 AM
cyber@terrorist.com
I have emailed the site manager. We will see if we can put an end to your stupidity.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 4, 2008 2:29:38 PM
Why do you hate America?
Posted by: cyber terrorist | Apr 5, 2008 12:58:21 PM
cyber terrorist, because you cannot resist the urge to post nonsense on this blog, I am forced to ban you from posting. Do not post here again or I will contact your ISP and have your account cancelled. We will see how you behave with no internet access.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 6, 2008 1:52:59 PM
I did not post that last message. Again we have a problem with identifying people and keeping spammers and flamers off this site.
The way that other sites do it is a password sent to the email. If it is a phony email, no password.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 8, 2008 10:55:02 AM
kjm
Posted by: | Apr 11, 2008 8:43:31 AM
Any fuel derived from vegetation will create only extreme disasters for food supply(it already is), for soil fertility and so on. Also the overall destruction(per unit of fuel) to ecology from the back end processes in creating thse bio-fuels are worse than that caused by petroleum products. The best thing until there is new technology is to build fuel effcient cars and planes. Its commendable Boeing investing in new technology.
Posted by: Karan | Apr 23, 2008 9:14:15 AM
What baffles me is why some many scientist, engineers and so called green energy companies, have ignored the zero point fuelless energy avialble in unlimited quantities with no fuel problems of any kind. It appears the status quo which is destroying our earth has complete control over science as well as energy. If not,then why not use a fuelless motor to run your plane where no fuel cell for fuel is required? This technology must be brought out and used! It has been ignoed much too long!
Posted by: Rig | May 27, 2008 11:27:00 PM
Hi this is a nice step for saving our Earth's environment.
Can the same technology be used in automobiles.
Posted by: Vinayak | May 28, 2008 4:15:15 AM
