By Glenn Pew for AVweb.com
Boeing has flown a manned aircraft on hydrogen fuel cell power. The full text of Boeing’s release follows:
MADRID, Spain, April 03, 2008 — Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced today that it has, for the first time in aviation history, flown a manned airplane powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
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.
“Boeing is actively working to develop new technologies for environmentally progressive aerospace products,” said Francisco Escarti, BR&TE’s managing director. “We are proud of our pioneering work during the past five years on the Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane project. It is a tangible example of how we are exploring future leaps in environmental performance, as well as a credit to the talents and innovative spirit of our team.”
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts hydrogen directly into electricity and heat with none of the products of combustion such as carbon dioxide. Other than heat, water is its only exhaust.
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:
Austria — Diamond Aircraft Industries
France — SAFT France
Germany — Gore and MT Propeller
Spain — 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
United Kingdom — Intelligent Energy
United States — UQM Technologies.
If you produce hydrogen from water on demand via a water fuel cell, there wouldn’t be any problems…
yeah all you need to produce hydrogen is a bit of water and a bit of electricity…there doesnt have to be any emissions, so long as the electricity is sourced from a gree supply
you can produce hydrogen with water, it’s called an hho generator…
This is a little off subject but…
It looks to me that that laws of physics are being rewritten. do a search on the magnetic motor created by a couple of mechanics from Australia. Apparently, you can run your entire house on it for as long as you live.
As much as we would like to think we have the hard and fast rules of sciences, it’s become more and more obvious, that it’s not so black and white anymore.
The problem is that most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels especially the steam reformation of natural gas that produces carbon monoxide then CO2. This is at a rate of 4 H2 for one CO2 molecule. Electrolytic conversion is relatively low efficiency and it is more efficient to use the raw electric power. However there is research into using nuclear reactors to directly produce hydrogen.
we need to get away from fosil fuel. this seems promissing.
I love it wonderfull idea wow no more oil .
mr. thanks for the video .
Hydrogen is the most powerful element in the space.I think that hydrogen is a future,expecialy hydrogen fuel cell.But a problem is in making hydrogen.
Hydrogen tanks isn`t dangeures,also they aren`t much dangeurous then petrol today.Hydrogen is a most weightless element in PSE end imediately go up when came out of the tank.
logic also says we are running out of fossil fuels. do you really see no point in developing an alternative?
Thats only on a 1:1 scale. To use a small gas engine to generate the power needed for hydrolysis is much more efficient than the best of the direct piezo injected, round cam’d motors. Its the emissions of a lawn motor engine combined with a gas engine getting 100mpg. Even so, one could just wire a power electric motor to generate the power needed to an extra alternator and be even more efficent. This is how many water conversion guys do it today. I would know theres a shop that does this near me
The facts are:
We, the average consumer, has the ability to gain access to engines that are in gross excess of what we need. The amount of power per gallon (the US should of gone metric), is superior to other fuels, but there is a high environmental cost in burning fossil fuels. Hydrogen is meant to be clean because, as you know, when the hydrogen recombines with the oxygen, it’ll just form H2O and that isn’t damaging to the environment
ANYTHING that uses electrolysis to liberate hydrogen for fuel is LESS EFFICIENT than using the fossil fuel directly to power the car. Those are the facts. It’s more efficient to run your car on cooking oil than it is to run it on a ‘state of the art’ fuel cell/electric/whatever vehicle. You can’t get more efficient than direct internal combustion, if you think you can…then…well, you’re going against the laws of physics and the current state of technology. It’s all a ridiculous gimmick. Ok?
“First flight of a manned a/c powered by a fuel cell?”
I thought Liberty flew with a fuel cell at Oskosh a few years ago…
F-22 is even better, boeing builds some of the F-22’s body. it has the most awesome engine too
Goodness people, if you’re going to make comments about Global Warming/Climate Change, make sure you fully understand what these are first before coming here belching out your own presumptions.
fuel cells are not cheap at all
Now let me get this straight. Cars and humans are responsible for the earth warming up.
So the FACT that the Puget Sound and most on Montana and Idaho were once glaciers means that cars and humans caused them to melt. Hmm. I get it! We are all living in the prequel!
not large passanger aircrafts huh… well i hear these things are pretty easy and cheap to make why not insted of a large plan why not a bunch of small ones almost like a car but longer distance?!?!?!?
Boeing is so lame, there’s now way it can provide primary power… if the same people where around when Tesla was around we would not have our world today
if that “small motor” is essentially supplying all the energy to run the car, the car is not running on water.
Anymore than a coffee machine runs on coffee.
I followed the JoeCell groups for years, lots of people making claims but surprisingly NOT ONE PERSON was able to provide proof. Has that changed?
Yes climate changes are caused by radiation from the sun, and that’s why we have an ozone layer to filter some of that UV radiation out. CO2 is not irrelevant to global warming, it is a greenhouse gas which strongly absorbs heat, and prevents it from escaping into space, which can cause an increase in temperatures on earth.
no they arent. Cars that run on water use hydrolysis to split the oxygen and hydrogen and the hydrogen is used as the fuel. The drawback is you need a gas or electric motor to initiate the process but its only a small motor like a briggs mower engine so emissions are extremely low.
Yes all climate science groups are involved in a huge conspiracy – at their universities they don’t study scientific method and climate at all – they study howto lie to people! ZOMG!
You should ring them up pronto and tell them that CO2 is irrelevant – even though their science tells them otherwise – All those studies are nothing compared to YOUR PERSONAL GUT FEELING right?
You’re gonna change the world, go my man! The world of science needs you!
evidence has shown that the earth climate changes are caused my the suns heat radiating to the earth. And the reason that scientists believe that it is real is because they are funded if they study it, because the public is afraid. CO2 is irrelevant to the temperature of this planet. the icecaps fluctuate. whenever those
“scientists” are challenged with real research they are infuriated because there is no scientific basis for “man made global warming” And it’s Bullshit.
A scam perpetuated by every single climate science group in existence? But you know better, lol.
Global warming is real.
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