Blazing Wings

A novel aircraft designed by European flight engineers has made it to the annals of history by taking the first flight with its engines powered with fuel cell aircraft technology. It was observed that the aircraft displayed zero CO2 emission during its entire flight period.

The aircraft, known as the Antares DLR-42 is the brainchild of four collaborating organizations, namely, DLR( German Aerospace Center), Lange Aviation, BASF Fuel Cells and Serenergy. One of the developers from DLR, Johann-Dietrich Woerner proudly stated that they had improved the performance functionalities considerably and increased the efficiency of the fuel cells to such an extent, that a piloted aircraft could easily take off powered by only fuel cells. He also reiterated the potential of fuel cell technology in aerospace and applied fields.

Electricity with Hydrogen

The fuel cell technology worked on the principle that transfers hydrogen into electricity. The Antares made use of this principle to take flight successfully. The process takes place with a simple reaction involving air and there is no involvement of combustion in this process. The developers claim that a fuel cell powered aircraft could cover distances as far as 465 miles and remain in the air for up to five hours. Water is the other product obtained during this reaction.

Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel cells using hydrogen have zero percent carbon dioxide emission if renewable resources are used. This is great news for environmentalists as there will be no carbon footprints left. It can now be considered as a serious alternative to other forms of energy systems. However, hydrogen fuel cell technology is still in its nascent stage and may take a while before becoming applicable to wide areas in the aerospace sector. One thing is clear- the stability is sound even if the hydrogen is carried in external pods. This was well proven by The Antares that flew up to 170 km per hour.

The next focus would be in improving the service life of the fuel cells along with their efficiency. Josef Kallio, project manager at Antares was confident that the hydrogen fuel cell technology would be one of the popular technologies to reckon with, in the near future.

The Eurofighter Typhoon has clearly established itself as the world’s leading Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) or fighter-bomber, often triumphing over more stealth oriented bombers and fighters. The Typhoon is manufactured by an aviation consortium that goes by the name of Eurofighter led by the revered European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS). Introduced in 2003 after nearly 10 years of flight testing, the Typhoon has already found favor with the defense outfits of most leading nations, including Italy, Germany, Britain, and Austria.

The Typhoon’s state-of-the-art features

With cutting edge fly-by-wire features that prevent manual operations to exceed safety parameters, the Typhoon is also equipped with advanced and automatic air-to-air and air-to-surface threat monitoring systems. The Typhoon also incorporates one of the first speech recognition systems for non-critical cockpit functions which is validated and confirmed by visual and audio feedback. Armed with Sidewinders and AIM-132 missiles, the Typhoon can carry six of the Paveway series laser guided bombs. With a small radar signature and infra-red search and track features, the Typhoon manages to give conventional stealth fighters a run for their money.

A hot favorite with defense buyers

The Typhoon is most frequently compared to the Lockheed Martin’s F22 Raptor and the Rafale from Dassault of France. The F22 is now out of production, while the Rafale is nearly two decades old. Thus, it should not be a surprise that the Typhoon seems to show up on the shopping list of defense outfits from across the globe. Even though some nations have opted for the Rafale, the Typhoon clearly outranks it on every count. Many of the nations who have gone with Typhoon’s competitors are rumored to be renegotiating with Eurofighter too. With the Typhoon continuing to create records not only in sales, adoption and deployment, but also in endurance and fly-times, it is clear that the other players have something to worry about.