High Speed Amphibian: The Humdinga – one of the more rugged vehicles capable both off-road and on-water

High Speed Amphibian capable both off-road and on-water.

High Speed Amphibian - The Humdinga
High Speed Amphibian – The Humdinga; photo: gibbsamphibians

UK based Gibbs Amphibians, the world authority on High Speed Amphibians, has been developing High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology for over 20 years, during which the company invested hundreds of millions of pounds and over 3 million man hours in the development and maturation of the technology. Gibbs is the first company in history to successfully create fully homologated vehicles that can exceed 30 mph on water as well as achieve typical speeds on land, transitioning between land and water in under 5 seconds, at the push of a button.

The Humdinga is one of the more rugged vehicles created by Gibbs, capable both off-road and on-water. It can carry up to 9 passengers, with the signature Gibbs central driving position and can carry a tonne in payload. It reaches speeds of 40mph on water and over 80mph on land, with twin Gibbs proprietary water jets and 4WD.

The Humdinga is a 4wd, 7m long, High Speed Amphibian with robust off-road and on water capabilities. It is using a V8 diesel engine driving the wheels and twin Gibbs proprietary water jets.

Gibbs has locations in the U.K. (Nuneaton) and New Zealand, utilising engineers and expertise from both countries to continue to develop High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology and the vehicles designed around it.

The UK based business, founded by Alan Gibbs with Neil Jenkins, has been developing High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology since 1994. Since then it has developed over eight different vehicles ranging from 3m to over 10m within many differing applications, including the record-breaking and award-winning Aquada, the famous Quadski and the robust Humdinga.

High Speed Amphibian - The Humdinga on the road
High Speed Amphibian – The Humdinga; photo: gibbsamphibians
High Speed Amphibian - The Humdinga emergency
High Speed Amphibian – The Humdinga; photo: gibbsamphibians
High Speed Amphibian - The Humdinga aerial
High Speed Amphibian – The Humdinga; photo: gibbsamphibians

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Welcome to the future of drones: HES Hycopter’s flight durations can extend to 3.5 hours

 

HYCOPTER – a New Phase in Drone Technology Begins

Singapore’s HES Energy Systems is announcing the commercial launch of HYCOPTER, an industrial-grade multi-rotor drone designed for large-scale industrial maintenance inspections. The H2Drone is a long endurance hydrogen-powered multicopter and fixed-wings for high-end-data-collection commercial missions.

HES Hycopter H2 Drone
HES Hycopter H2 Drone; photos: hes.sg/hycopter

Last month, HES also unveiled plans for regional hydrogen-electric passenger aircraft called Element One. One century after the start of commercial flights, Element One reinvents aviation pioneering a new form of Aerial Mobility:  quiet and Zero Carbon, personalized, on-demand, decentralized and economically inclusive of rural communities.

After many years of work, HES Energy Systems 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.

Meet HYCOPTER, a hydrogen multi-rotor system by HES Energy Systems which is now 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.

HES Element One aircraft concept
HES Element One aircraft concept; photos: www.hes.sg

 

HES Hycopter H2 Drone-
HES Hycopter H2 Drone; photos: www.hes.sg

HYCOPTER was designed in Austin, Texas where a local production base is being set up.

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.

HYCOPTER includes a new breakthrough 140g pressure regulator capable of reducing hydrogen pressure from 350bar to 0.5 bar. Other system components include specially designed HES fuel cell stacks capable of generating over1W per gram.

HYCOPTER can recharge in minutes using bottled industrial-grade hydrogen from local hydrogen suppliers. Withfurther 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 technologyis now being scaled up to power manned electric aviation as well as other aerial mobility platforms under discussion with various international aerospace companies,” announced HES Energy Systems.

HES Element One aircraft concept-
HES Element One aircraft concept; photos: www.hes.sg
HES Hycopter H2 Drone-details
HES Hycopter H2 Drone; photos: www.hes.sg

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