Hydrogen fuel cells could star in long-endurance UAVs
on 30 April at the AUVSI Xponential conference.
A hydrogen fuel cell powered multirotor UAV that weighs 25kg (55lb) typically has three times the endurance of a similar battery-powered drone, he says.
“As you go larger in a fuel cell system it actually gets much higher than that,” says Kelly.
“We’ve seen flight times that are five, six, seven times that of a comparative battery.”
On April 16, South Korean company MetaVista claimed a multirotor UAV endurance record using an 800W hydrogen fuel cell made by Intelligent Energy.
That drone flew for a little more than 12h.