Hybrid Hydrogen Power For A New Satellite Alternative
November 22, 2010
A new and promising "eye in the sky" inches closer to reality with successful testing of AeroVironment Inc.'s Global Observer high-altitude unmanned aircraft, designed to loiter above an area for up to a week at a time. On Oct. 26 the company said the 70-foot, propeller-driven aircraft, with a wingspan of 175 feet, had completed low-altitude airworthiness tests under battery power at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Over the next six months, the plane's actual powerplant will be used in further flight-testing. It's a liquid-hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine driving a generator that produces electricity to turn the four props. We do live in the age of hybrids, after all.
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