A hydrogen quadrocopter can fly for several hours without recharging

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    Hycopter / Horizon

    Horizon Unmanned Systems (HUS), a division of Singapore's Horizon group of companies, unveiled a working prototype of its Hycopter quadcopter at Unmanned Systems 2015 (“unmanned systems”). A distinctive feature of the HUS copter is the use of hydrogen as a fuel.

    Thanks to the combination of hydrogen fuel and ultra-light fuel cells, the copter can fly without charge for 4 hours without recharging. If you load it with a payload of 1 kg, then the flight time will be 2.5 hours. Conventional battery powered copters can last no more than half an hour. Enthusiasts try to overcome this barrier by creating drones on the wire , collecting batteries on their own (record - 96 minutes ), and even trying to make a copter on an internal combustion engine (and here it is, a helicopter).



    As a Horizon representative at the exhibition booth explained to Fox News, at some point, the inventors suddenly realized that the copter frame could be used in an unusual way. After all, the frame serves as an element of rigidity and a method of fixing its components, including it carries on itself and batteries - batteries. But inside the hollow frames, only air is inside. But what if you make a frame inside which hydrogen will be stored? As a result, the Hycopter frame has become a container for hydrogen (with a capacity of 4 liters of hydrogen).

    The idea with hydrogen did not appear from scratch - a division of Horizon Energy Systems is engaged in the manufacture and sale of ultra-light fuel cellsthat consume hydrogen and produce electrical energy. For example, a 200 W cell weighs 500 g, a 500 W cell weighs 1150 g.

    “Moving away from the principle of separating the batteries and the device’s frame, we came up with a completely new category of drones that are between the batteries and internal combustion engines,” says a company spokesman.

    The power consumed by Hycopter with a stationary “freeze” is slightly less than 400 watts, while climbing - 800 watts. According to Horizon, the cost of industrial hydrogen is $ 5 per kWh. Based on these data, the company claims that one flight will cost you $ 7.50 (this calculation apparently comes from the assumption of an average power consumption of 600 watts, and the expression $ 5 * 600 * 2.5 / 1000 = $ 7.50 )

    It remains only to equip it with a system that extracts hydrogen from the air , and it will be possible to send it around the world.

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