Hyfish is a model hydrogen powered aeroplane developed by Koni Schafroth. The model has successfully passed test flights under battery power and Smartfish is going forward with development to a 2-man aircraft.Hyfish Fuel Cell
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General history

The Hyfish is a product of the German Air & Spacecenter and its international partners.Howard, Courtney E. "Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Technology Takes Off, Powering Hyfish UAV. (Cover Story)." Military & Aerospace Electronics 18.6 (2007): 1-14. The German Air & Spacecenter, otherwise known as the Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt, or DLR, is located in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. These partners included, but were not limited to, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. Development of the Hyfish, an

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

that is jet powered by hydrogen

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

technology, took eighteen months of hard-work and laboring research. Unmanned aerial vehicles are also called UAVs. UAVs are difficult to power because they have to be small and light in order to be able to maintain flight in the air. To resolve this challenge, Scientists at the DLR Institute for Technical Thermodynamics in Stuttgart integrated Horizon Fuel Cell Technology's fuel cell system into the Hyfish. In order to prepare the Hyfish for flight, the SmartFish team had to test the CFD of the aircraft numerous times."HyFish." Smartfish. Team Smartfish GmbH, 2003

The most influential reasoning behind the creation of the Hyfish was to demonstrate and test the effectiveness of fuel cells in a challenging environment (systems), environment, which in this case, involved flight in the air. However, the construction of the Hyfish also helped researchers educate themselves more in the subject of lightweight construction in addition to the subject of the packaging of fuel cell systems. This unmanned UAV took its first flight in 2007 in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The Hyfish was put on display at the Hannover fair, otherwise known in Germany as the

Hannover Messe The Hannover Messe (HM; "Hanover Fair") is one of the world's largest trade fairs, dedicated to the topic of industry development. It is organized by Deutsche Messe AG and held on the Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Germany. Typically, there are ...

, for spectators. This event lasted April 16–20, 2007."HyFish: A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered UAV." Tech Industry News, 16 Apr. 2007

Fuel cell

The Hyfish hydrogen fuel cell system had some unique attributes. It was ultra light and compact, which helped to keep the UAV's weight to 13.2 pounds. This fuel cell created no emissions, another great attribute, and consisted of

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

electrolyte An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon dis ...

. Because of this, it was able to create one kilowatt of electrical power output. All in all, the fuel cell weighed a measly 6.6 pounds, which included its pressurized

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

tank. The fuel cell stack gave power to an impeller jet which enabled flight for about six minutes, despite the less than ideal weather conditions for such an experiment. This kind of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

is what is used in jet skis."Fuel Cell-Powered Model Jet UAV Performs Aerobatics in Maiden Flight." The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter. Berne, Switzerland. May 2007

. The Hyfish excited scientists and made history because it was the first fast plane with jet wings to fly with only a hydrogen fuel cell and its only power source. It performed vertical climbs into the air, loops, circles, and various other aerial

acrobatics Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...

and tricks while flying at extremely fast speeds reaching 124 miles per hour. George Gu, president and CEO of Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, verbally displayed his high hopes for the future of UAVs: "We are confident that record-breaking 15 to 30 hour flight times are now within reach for small UAVs, which would offer new and distruptive possibilities in the aviation industry." The Hyfish development team included some notable and accomplished Scientists and researchers. SmartFish GmbH of Bern, Switzerland, developed the flight model. The gas-cell stack was designed and created by Horizon Fuel Technologies in Singapore. Drukon, located in Spitzkunnersdorf, Germany, developed and oversaw the pressure-reducing valve. And finally, Ainet in Germany developed the building of forms. Smartfish

Other features

Other features of the Hyfish were just as revolutionary as the hydrogen fuel cell, including the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

which was four feet long. The wings of this UAV were a mere three feet wide, an extremely small measurement. The composite structure of the Hyfish was completed and overseen by the company LTB Borowski. The vast majority of the parts that constructed the Hyfish were made from glass fibers. In other statistics, the thrust-to-weight ratio of the Hyfish was measured to be 1:3. The Hyfish was readily equipped to be able to fly at speeds ranging from 200 miles per hour to 300

kilometers per hour The kilometre per hour ( SI symbol: km/h; non-standard abbreviations: kph, km/hr) is a unit of speed, expressing the number of kilometres travelled in one hour. History Although the metre was formally defined in 1799, the term "kilometres per h ...

and at

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

s as high as 7,000 meters. The name is no coincidence; the Hyfish was actually inspired by a fish."HyFish." AFCS: Aircraft Fuel Cell Systems. AFCS GmbH, 2006. Web. 04 Mar. 2013

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818005240/http://www.afcs-gmbh.com/hyfish.php , date=2012-08-18 .

References

Hydrogen-powered aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles of Germany

General history

Fuel cell

Other features

See also

References