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 …
25 Responses
@dylanhelmer water vapour is also a green house gas. however the because water cycle is simple and can equilibriate quickly with additionality. it stiill is better than co2
@dylanhelmer At the moment, your hot air is doing more of a tune on the environment not to mention anyone else with an IQ out of the double digits..
I like it. I might go out and kiss an engineer.
This plane is a start but it is very weak. I thought Boeing could do more.
@Martin00028Guitar Water vapor will fuck our planet up bad. think about it, we would be pumping water vapor into the skys vreating more and more clouds and bad weather! wow! GREAT IDEA! CANT WAIT TO DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING BECAUSE OF THIS RETARDED IDEA! thanks for sharing your very intelligent comment
@serresjio Well The third sentence was said very beatiful!
Hope there comes more of this aircraft.
@applesweeter
i dont know how about the brainstorm, but i answer your qs as by myself.
1. because this is the perfect manner of movement.
2. to fly more.
3. Every creation is the step to perfection. I never designed an airplane, but i think it is not an exception.
theres cons also lol, the gas companies and car companies are not gunna let that happen for a while and gas is better not in efficiency or cleanness but in everything else
Water (and hydrogen from it) IS THE ANSWER! Hydrogen vapor runs an internal combustion engine better and cleaner than gas.
COOL!
Yes! Exactly! That way the next time a terrorist flies a plane into a building it will also act as dirty bomb spewing forth radio-active particles with a half-life longer than the history of man… genius! Putting aside the security issue, have you any idea the size and care of a successful nuclear power operation? A nuclear submarine and a nuclear power plant are enormous for a reason. They employ full-time engineers and round-the-clock monitoring. I really hope you meant this as a joke.
fantastic. never seen anything like this. moter nature has it all i guess.
Now that we have hydrogen airplanes, the us military should have hydrogen jets. no more drilling for oil. :)
Beautiful!
I guess you have never flown in one
the question here should not be why we love to fly but to why we love to travel…humans love to explore and man has invented machine to travel over land and sea…..we in modern times now use theses machine has a way of recreation ….to some people flying means freedom..to some people flying means a business venture..etc..
Dear All,
I have some questions about psychology:
(1) Why do we love flying?
(2) Why do we want to design new aeroplanes?
(3) What do we enjoy when design new aeroplanes?
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for your creative ideas and brainstorm!!! :)
Is this from stock symbol SYMW?
Aaah, waist of time, just go nuclear/electric like the submarines.
Looks like diamont aircraft
who here believes the American oil industry has not been in TERMINAL decline for over 30 years?
who here believes that Hydrogen is anything other than a means to STORE energy?
who here believes there is an infinite quantity of petroleum?
who here believe that Osama Bin Laden suspended Newton’s Third Law on 9-11-01?
who here believes a socially adept psychopath is incapable of being elected president?
hmmm, what would a psychopath president, with major ties to oil industry do ……..
there is at least one are where the profound ignorance of 99% of Americans matches their profound ignorance of energy and that is on the subject of 9-11-01.
so, it is TECHNICALLY feasible to fly a plane using Hydrogen as fuel?
Where does the Hydrogen come from? is the energy used to create this fuel less than or equal to the energy that will be obtained from the Hydrogen ?
no great stretch to make most Americans believe fire caused the total DEMOLITION of World Trade Center 7.
those fuels cell been around forever. Now get a zirconia based fuel cell and you will have lots of output. Since you don’t has to use hydrogen to burn. You could burn the pollution in the air for fuel.
1) The size of wings are not enough for the solar panels to fit over. It takes A LOT of panels to create energy and it won’t power the plane with that much. 2) payload would be massive. 3) wings are used to store fuel and the fuel would have no place to go… And of course I already mentioned solar panels have to be in large quantities to produce that kind of power. 4) If you are talking about electrics in cabin such as lights, that’s because the engines act like generators.
solar panels don’t come too cheap so it’s probably gonna increase the price of airplanes