'Endurance' UAV Flies Over 10 Hours

The endurance record for a fuel-cell-powered aircraft of about nine hours, set by a California engineering company, has been beaten. The new champion is a group of college kids with a $2,500 cash budget and some donated fuel cells.

In late October, the University of Michigan undergrads flew Endurance, their 12-pound radio-controlled UAV with its 8-foot wingspan, for 10-hours and 16 minutes, at an average speed of about 99 miles per hour. The flight was conducted in a field in Milan, MI, about 20 miles south of Ann Arbor.

The project, called SolarBubbles, was chaired by engineering senior Nick Rooney, who says the flight could have gone another five hours before the craft's propane fuel was exhausted, but the flight was cut short due to lack of lighting and navigation equipment required for night operation. His group hopes to try for a 24-hour flight later.

The Michigan Daily reports the students were attracted by the chance to play a role in the development of alternative energy sources.

The the fuel cells were provided by Adaptive Materials, a company based in Ann Arbor, after a fuel-cell engineer and Michigan alumnus, Nick Schoeps, convinced the company the record attempt would be a good test.

"We have some other military contracts we're testing it with, but we thought this would be a great opportunity to collaborate with the university and bring some students into the mix and see what we can accomplish."

Schoeps added that unmanned aerial vehicles are a great testing platform... because the results are so definitive. "If you don't have enough power, the plane falls out of the air," he said. "There's no question to how it's performing."

FMI: http://solarbubbles.engin.umich.edu/~solarbubbles/