Modular Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Plant for UAM

Hydroplane Ltd. and the University of Houston will conduct a joint research program to support the technology development of a hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) power plant (PP) for general aviation, urban air mobility, and VTOL aerial platforms. These  vehicles, once electrified with fuel cells and an electric motor can support a range of commercial transportation, humanitarian aid, and government use cases with emission free, lower noise, and significantly lower operational cost. By integrating commercially available and novel HFC component technologies on a single engine aircraft test-bed, we will minimize development cost and risk as well as maximize performance, energy efficiency, and enable a first to market electric aviation platform. The HFC power plant will have a modular architecture enabling commercialization with various aircraft OEMs including eVTOL and general aviation platform from 150 kW (Single Engine Land) to MW applications (eg. VTOL rotorcraft, gyrocopters, titl-rotors).The range of such vehicles will be extended to at least >200km and >1 hour endurance.