New Hydrogen Engine Test Shows Future of Aviation

An anonymous reader writes to mention Boeing has successfully completed tests for the engine that will power HALE, the new prop plane that will be able to stay aloft for long periods of time. "The wünderengine, developed by the Ford Motor Company, went for three days under the simulated conditions of a 65,000-feet flight, which is definitely better than a Taurus and apparently exceeded their expectations on fuel economy. Chris Haddox at Boeing's Advanced Systems said that while it will be several years before HALE flies, the key to this aircraft is the propulsion system and this recent test was very promising."

Comments

Curious now...

[LiquidCoooled]

What sort of mileage does a Taurus get at 65000 feet?

Re:Curious now...

[achilles777033]

65000 ft/tank. None of them managed to keep moving after that.

sounds like it will be a really hot technology

[User 956]

New Hydrogen Engine Test Shows Future of Aviation

Oh, the humanity!

Re:sounds like it will be a really hot technology

[Mattintosh]

The skin wasn't zinc, and it wasn't zinc that caused it to burn.

The skin was cotton, and they painted it with aluminum/iron-oxide paint. Basically, liquid thermite. Poof!

From the Wikipedia entry:
The duralumin frame was covered by cotton varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder. The aluminum was added to reflect both ultraviolet, which damaged the fabric, and infrared light, which caused heating of the gas.

The explosion happened when it was trying to land during an electric storm. The cotton panels were held to the frame with rope cords which were not painted with the same metal-saturated varnish as the panels themselves. When they dropped the grounding cable during the landing approach, all built-up static from the panels jumped to the frame, sparking the "thermite" varnish. The rest is history.

And you're right about how the use of hydrogen likely saved lives.

Fuel economy increases with empty tank?

[Radon360]

So, the fuel economy would go up with less fuel in the tank? Is this the reason why my wife always seems to drive her Taurus around with the fuel gauge always on "E"?

You people need to stop feeding this sort of stuff to the mechanically inept. I mean, it took me two hours to explain there was no such thing as "blinker fluid" to her friend the other day.

Re:Fuel economy increases with empty tank?

[russ1337]

I mean, it took me two hours to explain there was no such thing as "blinker fluid" to her friend the other day.

If you're so clever... then what is this stuff I've been buying?!!

Re:yeah right, hydrogen is gonna save us!

[benjfowler]

It may not always be a major issue. Future generations of nuclear reactors are likely to be designed specifically to operate at extremely high temperatures, good for producing enough process heat to thermochemically generate lots of hydrogen relatively cheaply.

Old dreams, new achievements

[Mutatis Mutandis]

For aircraft developers, the advantage of hydrogen has always been that it delivers more energy per weight unit than traditional hydrocarbon fuels. The matching disadvantage is that because of its low density, it is much bulkier, so requires bigger and heavier fuel tanks. Temperature is also an issue with pro and cons. On the one hand, LH2 is very cold, so ice formation on the skin of the aircraft can be an issue. On the other hand, LH2 is still chemically stable at high temperatures that would turn fossil fuels into a nasty sludge, or even break down hydrocarbon molecules before they can be properly burned. All that always made LH2 a very suitable fuel for a big rocket or for the hypothetical Mach 4 space plane. Its use on a slow high-altitude UAV poses very different challenges.