HES Energy Systems Launches 3-Hour Endurance Hydrogen Multi-Rotor Drone | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.02.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.03.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.04.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.05.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.06.25

Mon, Nov 12, 2018

HES Energy Systems Launches 3-Hour Endurance Hydrogen Multi-Rotor Drone

New Drone Designed And Built In The United States

HES Energy Systems is announcing the commercial launch of Hycopter, an industrial-grade multi-rotor drone designed for large-scale industrial maintenance inspections.

Addressing short flight durations is one of the final frontiers in drone technology. HES has a long-standing reputation for producing the world’s lightest and most compact fuel cell systems, which can be as much as 5 times lighter than lithium batteries. Following a first world distance record set in the US by a NASA-backed team from OSU over 10 years ago, HES has been pushing the limits its energy storage technology increasingly further, working from Singapore on various UAV programs and with leading aerospace institutions around the world.

HES is currently capable of over 700Wh/kg system-level specific energy and is working to push this limit even further thanks to a variety of novel technologies.

Now and after many years of work, HES merged its core technologies with a specially adapted multi-rotor design so that flight durations can extend to 3.5 hours, instead of the typical 20-30 minutes when using lithium batteries.

Named Hycopter, the resulting hydrogen multi-rotor system will now be able to keep precision cameras and other sensors in the air for much longer, opening up new commercial use cases while reducing operational costs for service providers. Hycopter was designed in Austin, Texas where a local production base is being set up.

Hycopter includes a new breakthrough 140g pressure regulator capable of reducing hydrogen pressure from 350 bar to 0.5 bar. Other system components include specially designed HES fuel cell stacks capable of generating over 1W per gram.

Hycopter can recharge in minutes using bottled industrial-grade hydrogen from local hydrogen suppliers. With further improvements, Hycopter-type platforms could also enable product deliveries over much longer distances than are possible today. In the future, long range cargo drones would be deployed from autonomous hydrogen “droneports”.

Versions of Hycopter will emerge next in transitional wing VTOL applications, and the same HES core technology is now being scaled up to power manned electric aviation as well as other aerial mobility platforms under discussion with various international aerospace companies.

(Image provided with HES news release)

FMI: www.hes.sg

Advertisement

More News

Citation Operators Get Another Flight Data Connection for QA

LinxUs System Adds Capabilities for Data-Driven Operators Textron Aviation announced another option for operators processing their post-flight data, adding interoperability with GE>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.01.25)

Aero Linx: The de Havilland Moth Club Ltd The de Havilland Moth Club evolved from a belief that an association of owners and operators of Moth aeroplanes should be formed to create>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Bellanca 8GCBC

(Pilot) Inadvertently Applied Excessive Braking Action, And The Airplane Nosed Over Analysis: The pilot reported that, while landing at a remote, rough and uneven airstrip in a tai>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.01.25)

“MCADT is committed to rapidly integrating armed first-person view drones into the FMF, enhancing small-unit lethality and providing organic capabilities that warfighters cur>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: High-Speed Match-up - Venom and GE Rebirth A Legend

From 2017 (YouTube Edition): Major Engine Supplier Joins Forces With Small Aircraft Manufacturer… GE recently made an agreement with Venom Aircraft to supply engines for the>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC