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Boeing Hydrogen Powered Drone First Flight

Posted by Unknown on from the eco-friendly-spying-program dept.

garymortimer writes with news of the test flight of a hydrogen powered UAV. From the article: "Phantom Eye's innovative and environmentally responsible liquid-hydrogen propulsion system will allow the aircraft to stay on station for up to four days while providing persistent monitoring over large areas at a ceiling of up to 65,000 feet, creating only water as a byproduct. The demonstrator, with its 150-foot wingspan, is capable of carrying a 450-pound payload."

7 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Let me guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Those 450 pounds won't be flowers and kittens, right?

  2. So It's Come To This. by Rie+Beam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Environmentally-responsible airplane that can also carry a wicked-heavy bomb....*sigh*

    1. Re:So It's Come To This. by bws111 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So 'payload' means bomb? Since when? And do people really think you could make the bomb-carrying mechanism, bomb doors, and a bomb all fit in under 450 pounds?

      The payload is cameras and associated equipment.

  3. Re:Bomb strapped to a bomb? by jklovanc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which is why under enough pressure it becomes a super critical liquid.

  4. Re:Bomb strapped to a bomb? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't that what you want it to do in case it gets captured by the Iranians again?

  5. Re:Bomb strapped to a bomb? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Traces of thermite... You mean rust and aluminum? I find it hard to imagine that a plane made almost entirely of aluminum crashing into steel beams would leave traces of rust and aluminum!

  6. Hydrogen is not carbon-neutral by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All these shenanigans about Hydrogen being a perfectly clean fuel ignores the fact of where it comes from.

    We don't get hydrogen from splitting water. That costs too much. We get it from natural gas, which has 1 carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms. This is done by steam reforming, and while it's possible to sequester the resulting CO2 by injecting it underground, it's not done by anyone. Because, again, it costs money.

    We can also get it from coal, after conversion to "town gas" and that's not the cleanest of processes either.

    Yes, I'm jaded. I used to be a true believer in this stuff, then I read more and grew up.

    --
    BMO