Russian hydrogen oktekopter set a world record for flight duration: 3 hours 10 minutes

Photo: IPCP RAS

In the Moscow region Chernogolovka, tests of the new Russian multicopter of the NELK company on hydrogen-air fuel cells developed at the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPCP) took place. During the tests, the drone lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes in the air - this is a new world record for the duration of the flight in open spaces among multi-rotor drones.

The mass of the octacopter is 12 kg, the power plant has a power of 1.3 kW, the payload is 0.5 kg.

In the laboratory of the Ioniki of a solid body IPCP, promising materials were developed for the complex solution of the problem of autonomous energy supply of objects based on hydrogen technologies. The development includes materials and devices for reversible storage and long-term storage of high-purity hydrogen, membrane and catalytic materials for fuel cells, peripheral measuring devices.
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Among them are hydrogen-air fuel cells with a proton-exchange membrane and a special design of membrane-electrode blocks.

The main advantages of fuel cells:

• work in natural terrestrial conditions without hydro / thermostating;
• run from –40 ° without electric heating;
• withstand more than 10,000 launches from freezing temperatures;
• high efficiency, low heat dissipation;
• reliability, long service life.

Reportedly, the development of an innovative fuel system for a drone was made in partnership with the Central Institute of Aviation Motors. P.I. Baranova (CIAM) and the United Aircraft Building Corporation (UAC).

IT Energy LLC, AFM-Servers LLC and Aerokon CJSC participated in the creation of fuel cells.

“The test series was carried out in Chernogolovka near Moscow for more than a year - from March 2015 to April 2016,” said Igor Vasilevsky, executive director of the NELK company. “Domestic hydrogen-air fuel cells make it possible to make record deposits in the conditions of the cold of the Russian winter, as well as high humidity.”

The absolute world record for the duration of continuous flight for a multi-rotor drone belongs to the Canadian company EnergyOr . In June 2015, her hydrogen fuel copter stayed in the air for 3 hours 43 minutes and 48 seconds . But the record was set in the hangar, while the copter did not fly, but only came off the surface by a meter and a half and hung.



In contrast, tests of the NELK octacopter were carried out in the open air.

“Kopter flew in gusty wind conditions and sometimes in the rain,” said Yury Dobrovolsky, head of the IHF Laboratory of IHF RAS. “At the same time, the flight modes changed — the autopilot and the steered, the kopter changed its height and transmitted images and video to the ground. And in greenhouse conditions, he had to fly, according to our calculations, about 4 hours and 20 minutes. ”

Experts believe that the creation of fuel cells of such high capacity is "an important step not only for unmanned aircraft, but also for other industries - robotics, automotive, communications and communications."