First manned flight using hydrogen battery doesn't cause rain, only tears

You're looking at the world's first manned flight powered by a hydrogen battery. Boeing's prop-driven aircraft set the lone pilot aloft for about 20 minutes at a speed of 100-kilometres (62 miles) an hour at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. The 800-kilogram (1,760-pound) craft with a 16.3-meter (51-foot) wingspan is capable of flying for about 45 minutes under the power of its hydrogen fuel cells -- the airplane's batteries provided an additional boost for takeoff. The fuel cells harvest the energy produced by the chemical transformation of hydrogen and oxygen into water -- that makes the craft clean as well as near silent. Unfortunately, the technology is nowhere near the point of powering commercial aircraft. At best, the fuel-cells could act as a secondary power source... in another 20 years.

[James @ Apr 4th 2008 8:36AM]

Chocolate Rain!

Tay Zonday FTW

[bartoron @ Apr 4th 2008 8:39AM]

IT'S GON' RAIN!

- the great Ollie Williams

[Mark @ Apr 4th 2008 8:53AM]

apple sucks.

[Patriks7 @ Apr 4th 2008 9:01AM]

nah.. we will see the iPlane Hydrogen Pro.. it will be very revolutionary and will sport an iPod and a MacBook Air.. dont worry the price wont be cheap ;)

[Kizorblade @ Apr 4th 2008 9:58AM]

I see... absolutely no mention of Apple in it.

[RVerriotto @ Apr 4th 2008 9:10AM]

One word.... cool!

[Bruno @ Apr 4th 2008 9:13AM]

[import antigravity]
...

Damn that only works in the comics. http://xkcd.com/353/

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 1:39PM]

is it me or is this xkcd thing almost literally an overnight intartubez sensation?

[JLTate @ Apr 4th 2008 9:13AM]

I'm not sure I'd want to fly in Boeing's "Phantom World". Currently I'm happy with the ones that video games take me to.

Wait... Phantom Planet? Hmm...

[Bk7 @ Apr 4th 2008 9:19AM]

gotta start somewhere..

[fanman @ Apr 4th 2008 9:38AM]

Yeah, but you'll have to take it to them to refuel ;)

[fanman @ Apr 4th 2008 9:39AM]

Why isn't reply working today? >:-/

[Nick @ Apr 4th 2008 9:56AM]

does this thing have an iPod dock?

[Chris @ Apr 4th 2008 10:40AM]

hydrogen power is a scam. it takes much more power to make than you can squeeze from it. until someone comes up with a better way to harvest hydrogen, it will not be a viable fuel source.

[balderdash @ Apr 7th 2008 3:19AM]

Not if it's being used in NUCLEAR FUSION!!!!

But I'd say it's being looked at more as a form of energy storage, not an energy source, and just because a technology isn't fully functional doesn't make it a scam. Nobody is forcing you to pay for it, this test was funded by a private organization.

[Chris @ Apr 7th 2008 9:39AM]

batteries are nearly twice as efficient at energy storage. the whole idea is a scam, and being "sold" to the public as a solution to fossil fuels, and it just simply isn't and never will be unless some dramatically different way of extracting hydrogen is found. Spend the research finding new ways to extract it, not trivial ways to burn it.

[George Kirkaldie @ Apr 4th 2008 10:42AM]

I like how they used another aircraft makers product and put their name on it. It's a Boeing, so use a 747.

The actual plane is a Diamond Aircraft HK36 motorglider. (Diamond make what we call "the flying sperm")

[Abuzar @ Apr 4th 2008 11:13AM]

Hey they lost, that's the way the world moves.

[PC Tech Support Atlanta @ Apr 4th 2008 11:19AM]

I don't understand the "only tears" bit.

Terry

[Mike @ Apr 4th 2008 11:25AM]

Really?

[martin @ Apr 4th 2008 11:28AM]

phantom planet? yeh i quite liked the theme to the oc aswell

[InMyHumbleOpinion @ Apr 4th 2008 11:32AM]

All due respect, you folks that say it costs much more for hydrogen fuel cell to work because it costs more to make it...you simply just don't get it. You've got to learn to look at the big picture. Yes, it does cost more, but as technology gets better, the costs will come down. Besides, what do you care? You're not the ones working on the solution, you're only complaining about it. Of course it'll be made better. You probably don't realize it, but the manufacture of cars was prohibitive, until somebody came along and made it cheaper. (Henry Ford)

The internet? You think it was a cheap thing to make? Yet, you use the very same vehicle today to complain about things. If it weren't for people who invented the internet (it was paid for by a Dept of Defense contract and of course as we have been told, invented by Al Gore), you couldn't complain here at all.

Remember how everybody complained about GPS's? It was so expensive to put those satellites in the space? Well, now even small school children will admit it's been very useful. You wanna complain about the fuel used? Just think how much more fuel would be used without so many people having GPS units in their cars.

Oh, then there was the telephone. Used to be, only a single store in a town would have a telephone...usually a drug store or a barber shop. Now, everybody has one, oftentimes, several.

As long as we're on the subject...what about eye glasses? You think the first one invented were cheap? Would you rather have people walking around blind because the technology was too expensive?

I could go on and on, but I think you (hopefully) get the point.

Quit your complaining and let technology do it's thing. In other words...shut the hell up and sit down. You have nothing to complain about.

If you insist on complaining, go complain to God...maybe he (or she) will listen...but I doubt it. After all, it was his idea for the people that work on inventing things to invent them in the first place.

[nathan.wong @ Apr 4th 2008 11:42AM]

I'd take the Katana any day...even the regular fuel version.

[nathan.wong @ Apr 4th 2008 11:44AM]

What's even more interesting is the Katana plane pictured isn't made by Boeing, but Diamond, unless they were bought out by Boeing.

[kneeyogi @ Apr 4th 2008 12:08PM]

Make it rain
- Adam "Pacman" Jones

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 4th 2008 12:24PM]

Yeah, and the native Americans can thank the fat lazy white men who feed billions into their casinos annually.

Plus, no taxes!

[rcappo @ Apr 4th 2008 1:15PM]

Maybe it is Phantom Works.
http://www.boeing.com/phantom/

[rcappo @ Apr 4th 2008 1:17PM]

This was supposed to be a reply, it makes no sense now.

[CE @ Apr 4th 2008 2:09PM]

Idiots on parade:

"I like how they used another aircraft makers product and put their name on it."

"What's even more interesting is the Katana plane pictured isn't made by Boeing, but Diamond, unless they were bought out by Boeing."

Its just a company logo put onto a vehicle!

The test wasn't even about the aircraft, it was about the power source for the engine!

[BigD145 @ Apr 4th 2008 3:31PM]

Here's an idea: Get rid of commercial aircraft and you won't have to make fuel cells for them.

[peachepe @ Apr 4th 2008 3:42PM]

I vote for that :)

[T-Bone @ Apr 4th 2008 3:50PM]

It doesn't say "Phantom World", it says "Phantom Works". It is Boeing's advanced research department, much like Lockheed's Skunk Works.

[Nathan B @ Apr 4th 2008 4:11PM]

oh noes an escaped amish got on the internet

[Loonie @ Apr 4th 2008 7:10PM]

Brilliant. Now if only someone could solve that little problem of manufacturing hydrogen, we're laughing.

[ujjawal @ Apr 5th 2008 1:30AM]

This is the future!! slowly but surely we are moving into direction where fossil fuel will die down for direct use!! we have been seeing the advancements in automobiles for quite sometime it was high time that aviation industry caught up.. http://www.gadgetgyan.com

[cckruger @ Apr 6th 2008 10:11AM]

Anyone else notice that even the haters make this site all about Apple?

[wardialer @ Apr 8th 2008 12:13AM]

i think you missed an earlier story back in december 2007. as embarrassing as it is for boeing, a small company in france -- the APAME group had a plane up powered by batteries. 18-month project, funded by donations, the plane was up for 48 minutes vs. 23 minutes, made of wood, cloth, and dental floss vs... BOEING. hydrogen's a joke... quite wasting people's time!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/04/first-manned-flight-using-hydrogen-battery-creates-no-rain-only/#commentform
read the story. nice reporting engadget -- or lackthereof.

[wardialer @ Apr 9th 2008 12:52PM]

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2007/12/kjk-link.html

posted the wrong link. looks like i wasted YOUR time instead.