A hydrogen powered drone just made an epic ocean crossing

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By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 5th December 2019

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Despite advances drones today are still limited by their range, but new technologies like hydrogen fuel cells are helping overcome those limitations.

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Although multi-copter drones are now being used to transport everything from blood supplies to donuts their short battery life limits their range, but this week, hot on the heels of hydrogen powered trucks and a hydrogen powered flying taxi with a record beating 400km range, a new hydrogen powered delivery drone achieved a new drone flight record and managed a staggering 1 hour, 43 minute ocean crossing between two Caribbean islands.

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The test was the result of a collaboration between Texas based drone development company Guinn Partners, Georgia based Skyfire Consulting, the US Department of Health, and drone manufacturer Doosan who supplied the hydrogen fuel cell powered DS30 octocopter.

See it in action

Using its temperature controlled payload system the drone was used to transport live bacteria samples from a hospital on the Caribbean island of St. Croix to a testing facility on the neighbouring island of St. Thomas that involved crossing 43 miles (69 km) of open ocean, and when it successfully reached its destination the drone reportedly still had almost 30 minutes of flight time left on its fuel cell.

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According to Guinn Partners it can ordinarily take up to a week before patients’ biological fluid samples are transported between the two islands by manned aircraft, and in the case of illnesses such as Dengue fever the infection can progress to dangerous levels within that amount of time, but because using a drone is much cheaper and simpler solution the new test means that the samples could be sent to St. Croix immediately for a much faster life saving turn around.

For the inaugural test flight a crew from Doosan followed the drone in a boat ready to take manual control if needed but next year, when the drone undergoes its first fully autonomous test flights, it will fly completely solo.

Source: Guinn Partners

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.