Radio controlled airplane can fly for 10 hours on 500 grams of hydrogen
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has built and demonstrated a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can fly for up to ten hours using 500 grams of liquefied hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen is the energy carrier which appears to provide electricity to an electric motor via a fuel cell. At this time, the plane is piloted from the ground using radio control, but the team says that they are close to implementing an automatic pilot system, meaning that the machine would not require any manual human intervention. There is hope from the Korean team that the machine could have a future military purpose.
I've flown radio controlled airplanes before, and I can't imagine flying one for ten hours straight! After about fifteen minutes, my neck would revolt from staring up in the sky, so I'm sure that an auto-pilot would be a welcome addition.
[Source: Korean Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lisa Beamer 7:23PM (10/14/2007)
1/2 a kilo of H2 is quite a lot, actually.
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Kardax 8:08PM (10/14/2007)
People have built solar+battery radio-controlled airplanes that can stay airborne indefinitely, if you get a few sunny days in a row.
I'd be more impressed if this hydrogen plane was actually carrying a payload of some kind.
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A.Brien 10:42AM (10/15/2007)
That's a good autonomy. If someone can invent a
cheap and efficient way to produce hydrogen we can
replace some petrol.
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Chris M 7:27PM (10/15/2007)
UAVs are meant to be spy planes, and have onboard cameras that transmit images back to base. The "pilot" watches a monitor, and doesn't have to "eyeball it" from the ground, so a 10 hour flight isn't a problem. They can swap off "pilots" in mid-flight whenever needed.
Of course, the price is very high, but military groups, even in small countries, rarely concern themselves with cost.
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