As hydrogen-powered vehicles continue to evolve, their use will become as niche as that of some current land-, sea-, and air-transportation methods, such as a new agreement that will see helicopters powered by the green fuel used for organ transport.
The agreement was inked between Unither Bioletronics and Robinson Helicopter Company. Unither is a Canadian company specializing in the airborne delivery of lab-made lungs with a focus on autonomy and environmental awareness. Robinson is a California-based company that builds custom helicopters for such clients as news agencies, law enforcement, and private customers.
The plan is for the collaboration to result in a fleet of hydrogen-fueled electric copters that would be based on Robinson's R44 and R66 models. Once the birds are built and tested, the two companies are seeking to receive certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA).
“Just as protons from hydrogen atoms drive the mitochondrial power plants in each of our body’s cells, we look forward to using protons from green hydrogen to drive the membrane-based fuel cell power plants in our Robinson R66 organ-delivery electric helicopters,” said Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics, Unither's parent company. “We are honored to be working with one of the world's largest helicopter manufacturers as we continue to extend our track record of saving hundreds of lives through aviation-delivered transplanted lungs."
Unither has already made advances in developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (EVTOLs) that can be flown either by a pilot or autonomously to deliver the lungs it manufactures, as you can see in the following video.
“This collaboration accelerates the development of sustainable transportation solutions for life-saving organs,” said Mikael Cardinal, head of this program. “Hydrogen-powered aircraft are the next frontier in sustainable aviation. We are committed to developing a zero-operational carbon emission fleet of aircraft, and we look forward to working with the expert team at Robinson Helicopter to enable regulatory approval and production of these aircraft.”
Sources: Robinson Helicopter Company, Unither Bioelectronics
So good on them for experimenting especially using fuel cells rather than converted engines.
Don't let neanderthal views from some commenters restrict good old-fashioned experimentation.
The organ delivery looks like a pink herring!!
Other alternative fuels also have their draw backs including rechargeable secondary batteries, for aviation use you really do need a higher density energy fuel. Readers of these pges will also be aware of techniques being developed to store hydrogen more safely and easily.
There's a good reason why almost all of the hydrogen transport experiments run to-date have been discontinued. It's just plain ridiculous! Attempting to contain such tiny molecule is horribly difficult, expensive, and inefficient, it destroys everything you try to contain it in ("embrittlement") , it's made from fossil fuels almost all the time, hard to transport, and store, etc etc.
What surprised me more was how the whole point was to make organ transplant as fast as possible and the technician is taking her time to get to the chopper, then the chopper takes ages to get ready and do all the checks, a lot of valuable time wasted for something that was meant to be fast!