World's First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Jet

An unmanned hydrogen fuel-cell-powered jet (shown on page 1) recently made history as it took to the skies over the hills of Bern, Switzerland. The “Hyfish” flawlessly performed vertical climbs, loops and other aerial acrobatics at speeds reaching 200km/h. The flights were the result of one and a half years of cooperative development between the German Air & Space Center (DLR, or Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft-und Raumfahrt) and international partners, including Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies Pte Ltd. of Singapore, which provided the fuel cell that powered the flight of this next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle.

Scientists at Stuttgart’s DLR Institute for Technical Thermodynamics integrated Horizon’s fuel cell system into an aircraft weighing 6kg with a 1.2m-long fuselage and a 1m wingspan. Unlike previous experiments with slower moving and lower power glider configurations, this is the first time a fast plane with jet wings was able to fly with a hydrogen fuel cell as its only power source.

The fuel cell designed by Horizon produces 1kW from a system weighing 3kg, including the pressurized hydrogen tank. In optimal conditions, Horizon’s fuel cell stack alone delivered a peak power of 1.3kW at 800g of weight, achieving a record fuel cell power density of well over 1.5W per gram.