Fuel Cell Solar Long Endurance UAV and 2-Seat H2 Fuel Cell Aircraft Tests (Electric Vehicles Land, Sea & Air Europe 2011)

Full Professor of Aircraft Design and Aerospace Structures at Turin Polytechnic University. Responsible for the Platform Design of the first EC funded Project "HELINET: Network of the Stratospheric Platforms -UAV- for Traffic Monitoring, Environmental Surveillance and Broad-band Services". High Altitude Very-Long Endurance Solar and Fuel Cell Powered Platform. Coordinator, of the EC funded Project ENFICA-FC (ENvironmentally Friendly Inter City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells) to validate the use of a fuel cell based power system for propulsion of more/all electric aircraft. The First European two-seat electric-motor-driven airplane powered by fuel cells was validated by flight-test (May 2010). Partner & Scientific Responsible of the EC or ESA funded projects:

UAVNET: Civilian UAV Thematic Network: Technologies, Applications, Certification. CAPECON: Civil UAV Applications & Economic Effectivity of Potential Configuration Solutions. TANGO (Telecommunications Advanced Networks for Gmes Operation). STRATOS "Stratospheric Platform: A definition study for an ESA system".

ENvironmentally Friendly Inter City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells (ENFICA-FC): The ENFICA-FC project led by Politecnico di Torino and comprising 11 partners has been selected for co-funding by the European Commission in the Aeronautics and Space priority of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The main objective of the ENFICA-FC project is to develop and validate the use of a fuel cell based power system for the propulsion of more/all electric aircrafts. The fuel cell system will be installed in a selected aircraft which will be flight and performance tested as a proof of functionality and future applicability for inter city aircrafts.