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Hydrogen-Powered Drone Can Fly For 4 Hours at a Time
stowie writes: The Hycopter uses its frame to store energy in the form of hydrogen instead of air. With less lift power required, its fuel cell turns the hydrogen in its frame into electricity to power its rotors. The drone can fly for four hours at a time and 2.5 hours when carrying a 2.2-pound payload. “By removing the design silos that typically separate the energy storage component from UAV frame development - we opened up a whole new category in the drone market, in-between battery and combustion engine systems,” says CEO Taras Wankewycz.
This involves the scourge that are drones? Better outlaw hydrogen ASAP!
...it's not furry.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...
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BMO
between things that fly and things that explode
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Someone had to say it.
Please...can we stop using 'drone' unless/until it is actually autonomous? Otherwise, it's just a little RC aircraft.
This particular one is a little RC aircraft with a new, different fuel source.
Given the energy density of plutonium 238, a drone powered by a few grams could theoretically keep airborne and operational for years at a time.
I remember sketching/doodling a hydrogen balloon with a fuel-cell panel stitched into it when I was in 9th grade. Of course, I didn't know much about the practicalities of fuel cells -- just that I probably couldn't afford the platinum it would require. And this was pre-TRS-80, so about the only thing it would have done autonomously was go up until it used up its hydrogen, then come down.
The article says 4 hours is a lot longer than other drones out there... but how much are we talking about? How long can a lithium ion powered drone stay in the air?
Light up the entertainment with this explosively awesome new toy!
I can use hydrogen to keep an aircraft aloft much longer than that. The trick is don't burn it.
That's got propellers, and its go tubes, but no wires so its not a drone, its crude mockup.
It might even be just a rendering of pipes and propellers even, certainly not an engineering rendering.
I assume they'll try to crowd fund it without a working prototype?
Call me when you have a Mentos and Coke powered drone.
Oh, by the way, the wind-powered drone has been around for very long time: https://youtu.be/5eAbMJuqHZA
You are welcome on my lawn.
What the article tends to gloss over is that the 4 hour supply of hydrogen will be compressed at 350 bar (5,076 psi). By comparison scuba diving tanks are rated at a lower 200 to 300 bars (2,900 to 4,400 psi). You simply don't mess around with gas stored at this pressure.
So while the concept model optimistically refers to using "existing structural tubing" it will be more realistically a very heavy, high pressure, purpose built gas cylinder strapped to a an existing structural quad copter. Plus the addition of a heavy pressure reducing regulator, fill valves and all the mechanical supports needed to contain and work with high pressure gas. Assuming the fuel cell itself can even convert gas to electricity at a rate sufficient to sustain flight.
4 hours my ass.
The article has a picture of the CURRENTLY WORKING drone. It doesn't have large tanks of anything, it has two small tubes of hydrogen.
I think you have greatly miscalculated the pressures needed by this system. It's not storing pounds of the stuff, just 4oz or so across two fairly large tubes...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The website you get following the "hydrocopter" link in the article states pretty clearly:
HYCOPTER is being readied for a record flight endurance of 4 hours, or 8 to 10 times the average flight duration of equivalent systems today.
Which is about right based on even high-end drones consumers use today.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It has two clear tubes, and no wires from the controller to the motors (which would be visible in the clear tubes), so its just somebody sticking some rods and pipes together and saying "this drone will fly for 4 hours".
"The article has a picture of the CURRENTLY WORKING drone"
Man are you ripe for scamming. There's no video of it flying, the photo looks more like a rendering than a photo, and even a cursory glance shows it could not fly since the motors are not even connected to the controller!
GP points out that their hydrogen estimates are off by a huge amount, and this whole drone is about as fake as it gets.
Is material science still not at the point where we can make some sort of rigid, or rigged, shape able to maintain an internal vacuum such that the overall body is lighter than air?
http://www.icao.int/Meetings/UAS/Documents/Circular%20328_en.pdf
ICAO specifically uses the term "Unmanned Aircraft System" and "Remotely Piloted Aircraft". Go read the glossary on the above link and stop spewing your bullshit.
Why not an RC Zeppelin with nuclear RTG powered fans, that also uses excess power to generate replacement hydrogen from ambient moisture.
Now THAT sucker would be up there forever. I'd live in one if I could.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
but its frame?
http://www.progressiveengineer.com/profiles/maynardHill.htm
Haven't we learned our lesson with aircraft filled with flammable gas?
Years maybe, but not forever because the fuel is chosen to have a lot of activity for a short (in terms of years) time instead of a little bit for a long time. You need that intense activity because you get buggerall power from the seebeck effect (thermocouples etc), which is why the photoelectric effect is preferred in satellites unless the thing is going to be in the dark or going to be dipping into atmosphere to get sharper ground images (eg. the Kosmos series of satellites). Your RC Zeppelin would be better off with solar cells.
Just make it a bit larger. And now that you're at it put in a pair of seats, and some additional place for my groceries. Presto! the flying car is here finally!!
When the authorities see the word "hydrogen" then that's immediately going to restrict where they can be flown. In the UK that's already not many places.
... and any fool can make one with existing hobby motors.
Another thing I'd like to see someone try is use little hobby jet engines instead of four rotors.
Why? More compact size, I think the thrust might be higher, and they're probably more energy efficient if kept reved high for long periods of time. And that long rev state would be typical of a long distance flight.
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"it's" is the contraction for "it is". "its" is a possessive pronoun.
The submitter should have written "its fuel cell".
Learn the language. Maybe you could go back to junior high school to learn what you missed the first time around.
Maybe most hydrogen is expended in the first 30 minutes, and the residual hydrogen, lighter than air, will keep the drone afloat for another 3.5hrs?
That is not - quite - true.
However, they nowhere I have found have an actual picture of this thing in flight, or a video.
Then there is the fact that if you actually follow the links, they say something problematic.
The vehicles weight is 4kg.
The hover power is 400W.
This is very low for the weight.
Low power isn't purely a good thing.
Lower power implies a much lower 'exhaust speed' for the fans, and consequentially, much worse handling in wind.
If you rip out the (say) 1.5kg of fuel cell and extra structure to do hydrogen storage, and replace it with batteries, you get - with the same hover power and assumptions - over an hours flight.
Quadcopter flying times are a trade between ability to handle crosswinds and power-weight ratio.
If your quad gets blown away in winds a little faster than walking pace, you have a problem.
Why not one of those hobby turbines used as a generator?
This one:
http://www.mhzusa.com/MHZ-JetC... ...has a gearbox for driving the driveshaft of a boat, but maybe it could be adapted to run a generator. The specs show 8kw of power output and I think this is the smallest one they sell. Some of the others have power output in excess of 10kw.
2.2 lbs... or you mean 1 kg
Oh the Humanity!
Presumably it replaces the hydrogen with "air" as it flys. Since hydrogen is lighter than air, doesn't this mean that the structure is becoming heavier as it flys, and thus the demand for more fuel increases OR does do we see some botancy like effect as the structure is getting closer to the same density as air?
Well I expect the original design was far superior, since it ran on air.
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Quads need constant corrections from their flight controllers. In fact, I would say they are more autonomous than not, as they are unflyable without passing your inputs through the on board computer first. You usually see large, higher pitch propellers on quads, as they need very fast response times to any instability (CG off a tiny bit, gusts of wind, it's own turbulence, etc). Jet engines are not suited for this type of fast changing thrust. They may have better power to weight ratio, but that power is constant, which is not suitable to a quad. This is also why its very rare to see a quad use ducted fans, they don't have the instant thrust response time (they are also extremely inefficient).
FTW?
What drones are powered by air? Most are powered by electricity or hydrocarbon fuel.
I suppose one *could* be powered by compressed air. I know of none. (Yea, I'm sure somebody will find one, though, and link it here. They aren't common though.)
Horribly-written article. Suspect "Steve Crowe" ("author") is a bot. Link-bait.
Please...can we stop using 'drone' unless/until it is actually autonomous? Otherwise, it's just a little RC aircraft.
This particular one is a little RC aircraft with a new, different fuel source.
There you go, droning on, again. Maybe you should have posted Autonomous Coward.
call me when they add one or two seats on a sportsmodel drone with a tesla home battery... so i can commute more easily...
The Hycopter uses its frame to store energy in the form of hydrogen instead of air
This makes it sound like there are all kinds of quadcopters out there that are using air to store energy. This is news to me, although given the low density of compressed-air storage I'd be pretty surprised if it's true.
Anyone have any idea why anyone would say this, as opposed to "instead of batteries"?
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As to response time... the current hobby motors might not be up to the challenge but gasoline engines handle rapid accelerations all the time. Internal combustion engines are prized for this specific feature.
I wonder if this is more of a gearing issue?
The issue with gasoline engines is that they don't like to literally stop and start. They like to idle and go. Electric motors are generally quite happy to go from a cold start to high activity.
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