Extending mission time: how Skycorp’s Hydrogen drones support modern defence needs

To us, it was a purely technological solution, driven by a customer request. They wanted multirotor drones with flight endurance of 1 hour or more, without internal combustion engines. The only way to achieve this, even today, is by leveraging the high energy density of hydrogen fuel cell systems. Hydrogen itself is three times as energy-dense as jet fuel by gravimetric mass (33.3kWh/kg), while batteries are in the 250 Wh/kg range. Furthermore, it dramatically improves the workflow, enables fast refuelling, and allows for off-grid operation, removing the need for battery handling or frequent replacements. Plus, it actually improves safety. Today, we can fly for 2 hours+ while battery drones are still in the 20-30 minute range; that’s a huge difference in daily productivity.

First response and emergency response needs are increasing rapidly, but, of course, defence is leading the pack. Many different capabilities and gaps are now finally understood, and the race is on to address them. The main issues today are still related to procurement, regulation, and awareness, as well as more complex issues such as taxonomy. Most procurement is done on a specification rather than a solution-related basis, which means that we should essentially supply extra batteries and battery chargers with a specific number of charging slots to meet those requirements, while easily tripling the required flight endurance, for example. The worst examples occur when procurement specialists take whatever was procured last time and add 15% extra to everything (hilariously, this can result in procuring screen resolutions that are not produced anywhere in the world). This results in having to spend extra time, effort, and resources with every entity to explain and demonstrate not only what is possible, but also what the actual use cases are and what is required to fulfil them, not just random specifications on paper.

It’s a massive leap in reality. While Generation 1 was built as a technology demonstrator and learning platform, primarily for internal use, Generation 2 is built as a commercial platform according to dual-use standards, incorporating all the lessons learnt, the highest tier of technology available, and actually comes with a manual. It has already been sourced for various deployments, not only in Europe but also in Southeast Asia, for example. It has been built to align with our next significant leap, which is integration with autonomous ground infrastructure. Standardisation was the key challenge to overcome, and with Gen2, we’ve managed to achieve that.

Social embracement is a significant topic for drones in general, and the only way to achieve it is to deliver value and adhere to aviation-level safety standards. It’s also essential to accurately measure what you provide. This is a deep industry issue where “oh look, a drone is flying” needs to be replaced with transparent KPIs: what are the environmental, economic, and social benefits that you actually deliver? For example, in a recent EU project, we had to conduct a long-distance emergency logistics use-case example. Surprisingly, we didn’t receive a single “hydrogen-related” concern, neither from the county nor the general public, on the social media channels where the planned mission was announced in advance. To us, this means that doing things the right way and for the right reasons doesn’t raise any social concerns, and that hydrogen (and the so-called “new energy” technologies) are far better understood today than they were in the past. The City of Tartu also participates in a project called CityAM and has conducted a public perception survey as part of it, clearly showing that emergency, security, and other lifesaving use cases are well-received by the general public. Just don’t start delivering pizzas to people’s backyards, and you’ll be fine.

 The definition of autonomy is, of course, one of those taxonomy issues brought up; the reality is that drones are not truly autonomous, as they do not make decisions beyond conducting the mission according to the set commands and boundaries.

The only way to fully realise it is through public-private partnerships, as it has the potential to provide country-wide capacity services for a multitude of use cases, ranging from on-demand infrastructure surveys to search and rescue and border security. There’s a vital role for energy companies, critical infrastructure owners, and local communities themselves to ensure that new and improved services can be offered. And, of course, regulatory compliance is vital, especially from an airspace management perspective, as both manned and unmanned aviation must coexist; therefore, it also involves collaborating with regulators. We are also exploring and collaborating with various technology providers to cover the full value chain through different technologies. These must be Estonian/European technologies first and foremost, and to ensure that we’re also working with our investors to ensure that any upcoming relevant solution can receive the proper support and funding.