Elbit completes UAS test flight with Horizon Aeropak fuel cell
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 68 KB
- Volume
- 2011
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1464-2859
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✦ Synopsis
5 60 000 ft (18 300 m). In the project, DARPA's Vulture program, Boeing will pair Versa Power's SOFC technology with solar equipment that together provide the aircraft's onboard electric power. Combining a fuel cell with solar power provides continuous energy, making long-term propulsion and flight operations possible.
In the project's next phase, Versa Power will engineer and scale up its technology for an SOFC-based energy storage and power generation system to be incorporated in a demonstrator version of the SolarEagle, Boeing's name for the demonstrator aircraft. It is expected to remain aloft in the upper atmosphere for a minimum of 30 days.
Versa Power's work to adapt its SOFC designs has been funded in part under a Department of Energy initiative to hasten introduction of green technologies, enabling intermittent solar and wind installations to produce energy on a continuous basis.
'We expect this technology to have a number of applications as more and more forms of alternative energy come online in society,' comments Bob Stokes, the company's CEO. 'Any time intermittent power like wind or solar is involved -when the sun sets or the wind dies down -there is an opportunity for fuel cells to balance out the power and provide electricity.' Versa Power has built systems integral to research projects conducted by partners that range from industrial concerns (Cummins Power Generation, FuelCell Energy), to government agencies (Departments of Energy and Defense), and associations focused on energy