A team of students at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has successfully flown the first prototype of its Phoenix hydrogen-powered aircraft.
- The Phoenix Prototype’s first flight was officially revealed today.
- The Phoenix Prototype has proven that a student team is capable of designing, building and flying a hydrogen ready aircraft.
- It will now serve as an operational testbed for us to continue developing our cutting edge liquid hydrogen powertrain.
The video showcasing the flight testing campaign has been edited by QuickVision Creative:
The Phoenix Prototype, a 1:3 scale model of the aircraft, took to the skies for the first time on June 14, the AeroDelft team announced today. The battery-powered prototype, which looks like a glider, flew for 14 minutes and reached an altitude of 350 meters (1,150 feet), AeroDelft’s chief prototype testing engineer Gerben Drijfhout told FutureFlight. Data from this test flight will pave the way for the AeroDelft team to modify the aircraft to run on hydrogen power, he said.
The prototype has a wingspan of six meters (20 feet) and weighs 40 kilograms (88 pounds). Its larger counterpart, the Phoenix Full Scale, has a wingspan of 18 meters (59 feet) and weighs 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds). The students created this two-seater aircraft using a kit-built Sling 4 composite airplane.
“In the coming months, we will perform more flights on batteries to gather even more data and get comfortable with the aircraft,” Drijfhout said. “A gaseous hydrogen flight is then scheduled for 2023.” AeroDelft aims to fly the first full-scale version of its aircraft with a pilot on board in 2024, and that test flight will use hydrogen gas, Drijfhout added. Liquid hydrogen-powered flights of the full-size model are expected to begin in 2025.
“We will first attempt a flight on gaseous hydrogen to prove our hybrid powertrain is airworthy,” Drijfhout said. “The liquid hydrogen components will continue iterative development to then be proven on the ground before being integrated into the aircraft.”
Founded in 2018, the AeroDelft team consists of more than 50 students from around the world. The project’s sponsors include the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR), Frisian Air, Akzo Nobel, Arena Aviation Capital, and TNO.
Read the most up to date Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Industry news at FuelCellsWorks
