Fuel cell revolution: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CENTER'S RESEARCH PIONEERS HAVE JUST PROPELLED THE FIRST FUEL CELL-POWERED ROTORCRAFT INTO FLIGHT

摘要

Not until the last decade were the first fuel cell-powered aircraft flown and reported. The majority of these were small fixed-wing remotely piloted unmanned aircraft. In the past two years, fuel cell-powered manned flight has been demonstrated through the integration of fuel cells in powered gliders. Fuel cells have the inherent advantage of higher energy density than batteries, but they have much lower power density. This effort is motivated by the need to close that gap.