Design and development of a fuel cell-powered small unmanned aircraft

The design, construction, and flight test of a fuel cell-powered small unmanned aircraft are described. A fuel cell system featuring a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell combined with a hydrogen generator, which serves as a new power source alternative to the existing batteries, is proposed. The hydrogen generator uses a catalytic hydrolysis reaction to extract hydrogen from an alkaline solution of sodium borohydride, and constructed with a reactor, pump, separator, and fuel cartridge. Considering the performance characteristics of the fuel cell, the hybrid power management of a fuel cell and a battery was contrived. The fuel cell stack, hydrogen generator, and power management system were evaluated at the various load conditions. A high efficiency unmanned aircraft was designed and fabricated to validate the possibility of the proposed fuel cell system, and a small flight control system was developed for a high endurance test flight. Wind-tunnel tests were conducted before the flight tests under actual flight conditions. The possibility for the utilization of a fuel cell in a small aircraft was validated through the fuel cell powered flight test. The fuel cell aircraft flew for 2 h without incidents in the fuel cell system. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.