Boeing test hydrogen powered plane

US aircraft company Boeing scored a world first on Thursday when they announced they had sent a hydrogen powered plane into the skies

US aircraft company Boeing scored a world first on Thursday when they announced they had sent a hydrogen powered plane into the skies for three test flights.

The flights marked the first manned flights of a hydrogen cell battery powered plane. Industry pundits are citing it as a “historical and technological success” that according to Boeing’s Chief Technology Officer, John Tracey, is “full of promises for a greener future”.

The flights took place at Ocana, just south of Madrid, Spain. The test plane was a small, two person, propeller driven aircraft, weighing just 800 kg. It flew at a speed of 100 kilometres an hour for about 20 minutes at an altitude of some 1,000 metres above sea level using only the hydrogen battery for power and with just the pilot on boarda single pilot on board.

The director of Boeing’s research centre at Ocana, Francisco Escarti, said hydrogen cells “could be the main source of energy for a small plane” but would likely not become the “primary source of energy for big passenger planes.
“The company will continue to explore their potential as well as that of all durable sources of energy that boost environmental performance.”

The Hydrogen battery cells use energy produced from the chemical transformation of hydrogen and oxygen into water. Environmentalists are keen for the further development of hydrogen fuelled transportation as unlike other fuel based products it is a cleaner renewable energy source that only produces water as a waste product…

Reported by Cec Busby

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