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Experimental Fuel-Cell Airplane Begins NASA Test
gilgsn writes "Planenews.com has a NASA press release from their Dryden Flight Research Center about the first large fuel-cell powered airplane to fly. The Helios prototype took-off Saturday at 8:43AM from the Hawaiian island of Kauai, using solar panels to power its 10 electric motors for takeoff and during daylight portions of its 20-hour shakedown flight. As sunlight diminishes, Helios switched to a fuel cell system to continue flight into the night. I wonder how long it will be before fuel cells are used on homebuilt experimentals."
I'd think the atmosphere on mars is too thin for this kind of aircraft. I suppose if you take the lower gravity into account it might make a difference, but I doubt it.
The only real problem that I see with this is the fact that it's maximum altitude is 100,000 (subtract 10% to get the real world numbers), and the operational altitude would be 50,000 to 70,000 feet.
The problem is that many thunderstorms can easily reach 60,000 ft, and this craft doesn't look like it would do too well in a storm.