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The promise of hydrogen-electric power could shape the future of aviation. This new for form of aerial mobility is quiet and zero carbon, personalized, on-demand, decentralized and economically inclusive of rural communities. Element One brings together in one platform the ultra-light hydrogen batteries developed by hes, and the innovations in the field of distributed electric propulsion. This modular and redundant propulsion system increases the safety in flight.

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

Targeting a first flying prototype before 2025, Singapore’s HES Energy Systems is the creator of Element One, the world’s first regional hydrogen-electric passenger aircraft. Designed as a zero-emissions aircraft, Element One merges HES’ ultra-light hydrogen fuel cell technologies with a distributed electric aircraft propulsion design. With virtually no change to its current drone-scale systems, HES’ distributed system allows for modularity and increased safety through multiple system redundancies. Refueling Element One will take no more than 10 minutes using an automated nacelle swap system that applies AGVs and automated warehouse operations such as those used by Amazon and Alibaba.

Element One is designed to fly 4 passengers for 500 km to 5000 km depending on whether hydrogen is stored in gaseous or liquid form. This performance is several orders of magnitude better than any battery-electric aircraft attempt so far, opening new aerial routes between smaller towns and rural areas using an existing and dense network of small-scale airports and aerodromes.

Originally from Singapore, HES has been working with a number of fast-moving start-ups and SMEs in France over the past year and exploring various locations to execute its Element One vision, including Aerospace Valley, the global aviation R&D hub located in Toulouse. Its parent company H3 Dynamics has been a symbol of intensifying technological cooperation between the two countries as part of the 2018 Year of Innovation, announced HES Energy Systems.

HES Element One aircraft concept-2018 — HES Element One aircraft concept; photos: www.hes.sg

“It’s now possible to break past the endurance limits of battery-electric flight using HES’ ultra-light hydrogen energy storage in a distributed propulsion arrangement” says Taras Wankewycz, founder of HES. “Element One’s design paves the way for renewable hydrogen as a long-range fuel for electric aviation.”

In October, HES announced its plans to begin associating on-site hydrogen generation with fuel cell powered unmanned aircraft across a network of hydrogen-ready airports, in preparation for larger-scale electric aircraft such as Element One. HES is now in discussion with industrial-scale hydrogen producers to explore energy-efficient refueling systems using renewable solar or wind energy produced locally.

In an effort to explore new business models that help position Element One into new travel segments, HES has aligned its zero-carbon aviation roadmap with Wingly, a French startup that offers flight sharing services for decentralized and regional air travel.

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; 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.

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.