First Fuel Cell Plane Takes Off
Jul 16, 2009 10:35 PM EST
Solar-powered and hybrid planes have been making news as of recent for successful test flights proving the possibility of using solar energy in aviation. Fuel cell technology, while seemingly falling behind in the automotive industry due to the lack of a perfectly viable storage method, has now achieved a similar feat. The Antares DLR-H2 is the world's first manned plane powered fully-powered by fuel cell technology. Developed by a collaborative effort by several organizations, the vehicle is based on a motor glider with a wing span of 20 meters. Since current storage technology still calls for the use of hefty equipment, the plane's fuel cell system which weighs 220 pounds had to be attached to the wings. The wings had to undergo modification for this reason. "Due to the extra 100 kilograms of payload that each of these removable and flexibly interchangeable containers is able to carry, the aeroelastic properties of the wings had to be reconfigured to prevent any adverse impact on the flight stability of the aircraft," the official release says. Lange Aviation, the company that manufactured the plane is based in Germany, so Antares DLR-H2's test flight took off from Hamburg. Cruising range was recorded at 750 kilometers within a span of five hours. The DLR-H2 can exhibit speeds reaching 105 mph and, when traveling at a straight line, has a rated efficiency of 52 percent. In spite of the fact that fuel cell technology powered the aircraft solely, the use of fuel cells for aviation in the immediate future would be for on-board power systems. Check out Popular Science for a video of the Antares DLR-H2.