Berlin, July 18: In another step towards realizing the dream of electric flight, the world’s first manned aircraft with the ability to take-off using power from fuel cells takes to the German skies.
The Antares DLR-H2 aircraft, which generates zero emissions onboard, is the result of a joint venture between Germany’s Lange Aviation, BASF and German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Denmark’s Serenergy.
The single-person all-composite aircraft has a one electric motor, turning a two-blade propeller above its spine.
The power to the motor is provided by a single, advanced fuel cell, hanging under the left wing, sipping its hydrogen fuel from a tank under the right wing.
A fuel cell is a generator that converts fuel – in this case hydrogen – directly into electricity, silently and with no moving part, using electrochemical reaction with oxygen in the atmosphere.
Antares’ fuel cell generates up to 25 kilowatts of electricity, for take-off, but once the aircraft is in the cruise mode, then it supplies the motor with 10 kilowatts, which is all is needed.
It is claimed that the efficiency of the drive system from tank to the propeller is about 44 percent, which is about twice as efficient as the commonly used internal combustion engines.
“This enables us to demonstrate the true potential of this technology,” said DLR’s Prof. Dr-Ing. Johann-Dietrich Woerner, who believes that fuel cells could be a viable alternative source of energy for future aircraft.
The experimental aircraft has a maximum range of 750 km (466 miles) and can reach speeds of up to 170 km/h (106 mph).
The pioneering aircraft, which first took off on July 17, will be based at Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg, Germany, for the next three years, to be used as a test platform for fuel cell studies of DLR as part of its Fuel Cells Labs project.
—–Agencies