Unmanned hydrogen aircraft launches

Researchers at Tech recently launched an aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The plane requires no manpower to launch, proving to be a step forward in flight technology.

The unmanned fuel cell plane was a joint project between Tech's Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Tech got the contract for the project from the University Research Engineering Technology Institute (URETI), which came under NASA. The researchers chose to use the NASA/URETI grant to study alternative propulsion concepts, which involved fuel cells, and aircraft modeling and designing.

"[The plane] is not necessarily a new discovery, but a demonstration of the state of the art of fuel cell development," said Adam Broughton, research engineer and one of the builders of the plane

Blake Moffett, an aerospace engineering Ph.D. student, is the main designer of the aircraft.

"We wanted to show that with the technology we can buy now commercially we can achieve flight. The technology in applying and actually using fuel cells is less than 15 or 20 years [away]," Moffet said.

The main goal of the project was to show the potential of current aviation technology.

Tom Bradley, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student, researched and developed primarily the fuel cell component of the plane.

"A fuel cell is basically an electrochemical device that performs a chemical reaction and makes electricity just like a battery," Bradley said.

Unlike other forms of making energy, fuel cells are less harmful to the environment, as water and heat are the only reactants that come out of the chemical reaction they undergo.

"The reason why people are excited about fuel cells is that it's a way of making energy where you don't have pollutants because there's no combustion going on. It consumes fuel, but doesn't oxidize it, combust it or burn it," Bradley said.

According to Moffet, the engineer's part was to try to take the system model of an entire aircraft and try and build it to see if the individual parts that were designed were also coming out to close to what was predicted.

"NASA will rely on our expertise for these kinds of studies," Moffet said.

This feat garners attention from the population at and beyond Georgia Tech for various reasons.

"This is one of the only fuel cell airplanes that has not been built by NASA or a company in which things are all secret. We design all our stuff in the open. People can take pictures and talk about what goes on inside," says Bradley,

According to Bradley, it is important to make new technologies known to the public.

The fuel cell airplane, with a 20-foot wingspan, is the largest of its kind ever built that is powered by compressed hydrogen.

"That's important because compressed hydrogen is the same technology that the auto industry uses," Bradley said.

As opposed to liquid hydrogen, which most other researchers of unmanned aircrafts have used to power their planes, compressed hydrogen is cheaper and easier to use. This makes it easier to commercialize Tech's plane. Tech is the first university to fly a fuel cell airplane.

The method of launching and landing the airplane is also innovative. Other fuel cell planes have taken off by hand launch. This plane has landing gear and flaps to ensure a successful take-off and landing.