Electric airplanes?
Boeing to Study Electric Plane
SEATTLE (AP) - Boeing Co. is getting ready to develop and test an electrically powered airplane to see if fuel cell technology can make jets more environmentally friendly.
The goal won't be to replace jet engines on commercial planes, but to use fuel cells and electric motors for auxiliary power instead of gas turbines, the company said Tuesday.
"Fuel cells show the promise of one day providing efficient, essentially pollution-free electrical power,'' said Dave Daggett, a researcher in Boeing's environmental performance strategy group.
Auxiliary power units - essentially small jet engines - are typically in the rear of an aircraft, where they drive generators and compressors to produce electricity and pump air for the plane while it is on the ground and for backup use in flight.
"Our ultimate goal is to replace the auxiliary power unit,'' Daggett said. "But first, we're going to learn more about fuel cells by powering a small airplane and, as the technology matures, use fuel cells to power an aircraft electrical system.''
Fuel cells are cleaner, quieter and can generate more than twice as much electricity as gas turbines with the same amount of fuel.
Like batteries, fuel cells create direct-current electricity, but keep working as long as the fuel lasts and don't need to be recharged.
Boeing's Puget Sound-based Commercial Airplanes division and the company's new research and technology center in Madrid, Spain, are working on the project.
Most of the work will be done in Madrid, where researchers will design and integrate the experimental airplane's control system.
Researchers plan to buy a small, single-engine plane and replace its engine with fuel cells and an electric motor that will power a conventional propeller, Olsen said.
"This is the first of many advanced technology projects focusing on the protection of the environment to be developed in Madrid,'' said center director Miguel Hernan.
NASA, fuel cell manufacturers, the automotive industry and several European universities are supporting the project.
Test flights are scheduled to begin in early 2004.