AERODELFT STUDENTS BUILD HYDROGEN PLANE
Future Flight|September 2022
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 AeroDelft student team aims to promote the use of liquid hydrogen as an alternative to conventional aviation fuels by developing two hydrogenpowered aircraft: the remotely piloted Phoenix Prototype and the two-seat Phoenix full scale, which the team revealed with a taxi run during the annual AeroDelft summer event at Breda International Airport in the Netherlands.
AERODELFT STUDENTS BUILD HYDROGEN PLANE

The pioneering AeroDelft student team presented its hydrogen-powered aircraft prototype on Friday 26 February a hefty drone, Phoenix PT is a milestone and a statement. This summer, the electric motor glider with a six-metre wingspan will fly on liquid hydrogen, the only serious CO2-free alternative to big aviation, say the AeroDelft students. No other CO2-free energy carrier offers a comparable energy density (one kilogram for seven hours of flight).

For Structural Engineer Karel Brans (master student IDE), the Phoenix PT is the culmination of three years of work. At the time, students noted that there was not much progress in making aviation more sustainable. If large companies were already working on behind closed doors. They decided to form a collective to accelerate the greening of aviation. They took a 1:3 model of an existing aeroplane and started to equip it with electric propulsion using liquid hydrogen.

This story is from the September 2022 edition of Future Flight.

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This story is from the September 2022 edition of Future Flight.

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