The ultimate goal of this project is to create an RC plane that can fly for 10-15 minutes, while being powered, in part, by a fuel cell. During the process, it is necessary for our team to research available fuel cell stacks and components on the market, and provide rationale behind our choice of power and type of fuel cell. Important deliverables are lab testing to find fuel consumption rate and power output of the selected fuel cell, and extensive testing and vetting of additional fuel cell hardware (namely the fuel storage tank and the pressure regulator). These findings will be presented to the sponsors by the end of the curricular year. Finally, it is necessary to work with the ECE and Airframe teams to design and implement a system that allows for the fuel cell to be properly integrated into both the physical body of the plane, as well as feeding into the power system.

Our team collaborated with Electrical and Computer Engineering 4,Mechanical Engineering 53 on this project.