Hydrogen-Powered Spy Drone

By Spencer Ackerman

July 13, 2010 | 7:10 am

Courtesy Of "Wired's Danger Room"

It can stay aloft in the stratosphere for up to four days, powered by hydrogen. It can carry up to 450 lbs. worth of spy gear And it sounds like a Bond villain. Meet the Phantom Eye. Its manufacturer thinks it could be the iPad of unmanned aerial vehicles.

At a time when much of drone tech is shrinking, the Phantom Eye is a big mother. It’s got a 150-foot wingspan. The thing itself — unveiled by Boeing today — relies on two 2.3 liter, four cylinder engines that create 150 horsepower each, according to a company press release, allowing it to cruise at 150 knots. But the company didn’t specify much about its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, aside from issuing a vague quote assuring that the Phantom Eye “could open up a whole new market in collecting data and communications.”

So why is it an iPad-esque potential game-changer? For one thing, check that longevity. The Air Force’s Global Hawk (Manufacturer: Northrup Grumman) remotely-piloted drone can match the Phantom Eye’s 65,000-foot max altitude. But the Global Hawk has a maximum flight time of 30 hours. General Atomics’ Predator — often the last thing that al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in northwest Pakistan see — can only fly up to 25,000 feet, but it can stay in the sky for up to 40 hours. Boeing told Aviation Week that it’s shooting for a 96 hour flight from the Phantom Eye next spring.

Of course, these are aspirational goals. Boeing said today that later this summer, it’ll ship Phantom Eye to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California to begin testing. Its first flight is expected to last between four and eight hours.

Then there’s that power source: hydrogen. Phantom Eye’s project manager, Drew Mallow, called its hydrogen propulsion system “key to Phantom Eye’s success” and boasted, “its only byproduct is water, so it’s also a ‘green’ aircraft.” So there you have it: a Big Green Spying Machine.

Photo: Boeing

See Also:

• USAF General: Miniature Fighter Drones Suck
• Air Force Completes Killer Micro-Drone Project
• Army’s Drones of the ‘Future’ Head to Iraq, Now
• Darpa’s Beady-Eyed Camera Spots the ‘Non-Cooperative’