Insitu, a Boeing [BA] subsidiary and maker of unmanned aircraft vehicles, recently completed its first hydrogen powered fuel cell flight with its ScanEagle UAV, the company said recently.
ScanEagle flew for two-and a-half hours under an upgrade to the plane and in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory, Insitu said recently. Insitu furnishes ScanEagle to the Navy for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (ISR) missions under a services contract.
Insitu used a fuel cell supplied by United Technologies Corp. [UTX] and integrated with NRL’s hydrogen fueling solution and installed the package into ScanEagle’s propulsion module.
“Fuel cell technology contributes to Insitu’s goal of increasing reliability and reducing operating costs,” said Steve Morrow, Insitu’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Additional benefits of the technology are an increase in ScanEagle’s payload capacity and a simplification in support logistics.”