Hydrogen Aircraft

The high cost of fuel is making a lasting impression on everyone and that fact is no more real than the airlines. The fact is aircrafts require huge amounts of fuel, and when the price of fuel is sky high, some of those costs must be passed off to consumers. This is a problem that scientists have been working on for years and the answer may have been in front of us all the time.

The fuel for X-43 will be hydrogen.

The use of hydrogen aircraft may be the answer that we need. A simple fact is that hydrogen is a clean and highly efficient fuel source that is yet untapped. Why should NASA be the only industry to use hydrogen? They have known for years that hydrogen is far more advanced and beneficial than the standard fossil fuels. This fact shows that other industries are way behind in the wave of the future.

Hydrogen aircraft would not only be cheaper to operate but also much safer. The hydrogen aircraft would be far more environmentally friendly and the world would see a massive drop in the pollution rate. So why are we not yet seeing hydrogen aircraft produced? The answer is complicated.

For one thing, the technology is not yet there for hydrogen aircraft. The perfect hydrogen based engine has not been perfected and with this means that any thing produced at this point would be very expensive. This would not solve the problem that we are having and could make it worse.

Next, you must consider that a standard for fueling the hydrogen is not yet in place. For this to take place, an efficient fuel delivery system must be invented and properly tested. At this point, the methods are not practical and very expensive.

There is also the matter of determining the range that a hydrogen aircraft would have in respect to fuel ratio. Until a hydrogen aircraft is put into operational testing, this will not be possible. The safety of all those aboard must be guaranteed by knowing how long a hydrogen aircraft can travel with the standard fuel capacity.

There is research being conducted however. According to Flug Revue, "As early as 1956 tests took place in the USA with a modified B-57 Canberra. In 1988, a triple-jet hydrogen powered Tupolew Tu-154 flew in the former Soviet Union. Since the beginning of the nineties, Germany's Dasa has been working on hydrogen propulsion systems within the framework of the German-Russian Project Cryoplane. An important future milestone will be a hydrogen-powered demonstrator based on the Dornier 328JET."

In addition, NASA, Boeing and the military are all studying the feasibility of putting hydrogen aircraft into our skyways. NASA has been using hydrogen in their spacecraft for years so that's nothing new. Boeing is looking into the commercial applications, especially when it comes to cost reduction. The military is looking as using hydrogen aircraft for silent drones in war zones.

Recently, California company called AeroVironment, has completed test flights with an ultralight airplane powered by liquid hydrogen. The airplane is powered by fuel cells that generate electricity for the ultralights eight propellers.

All in all though, we see that hydrogen commercial aircraft are still years away from practical use. One day we will see the complete elimination of fossil fuel powered vehicles and aircraft. For that to happen, the technology must catch up to current demand.