AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

The Hydrogen Infrastructure that Never Was

For the long term, most auto industry pundits think that the hydrogen fuel cell will replace the internal combustion engine. The chief problem (and there are many) is that we do not have an infrastructure to supply hydrogen. We also do not have clean sources of massive quantities of hydrogen.

Now, here's a nerd history lesson for you. In the 1950s, U.S. government came up with the idea for a supersonic spyplane that would fly about 100,000 feet, well out of the range of anti-aircraft guns (and the missiles of the day) and fighter interceptors.

Famed Lockheed skunkworks chief Kelly Johnson came up with an idea of an aircraft called the L-400, codename operation "Suntan", powered by conventional jet engines, with the engines burning liquid hydrogen rather than jet fuel.

There was no problem in modifying the jet engines. The project never came to fruition for various reasons. Among them was the lack of a hydrogen infrastructure. That being the case, it was planned to establish a massive hydrogen infrastructure to support the planes if they were deployed.

By 1957, it became clear that a hydrogen powered airplane would not be the cure to the nation's intelligence-gathering problem. By then, Johnson's team was on track to build an even better plane, the Blackbird. The A-12 blackbird (the CIA version) flew at Mach 3.2 and at 80,000 feet. Although somewhat lower-flying, it was much faster than the Suntan, which may have never been able to reach it's projected Mach 2.5 speed. In addition, the Blackbird could run on a special type of jet fuel, and be serviced by tanker aircraft that required only modest modifications. With the blackbird, there was no need for a hydrogen fuel supply.

The A-12 made it's first flight in April 1962, about the same time that I took my first baby steps. For almost 40 years the Lockheed Blackbird was the queen of the skies. Because the Blackbird was so great, hydrogen-fueled cars are that much further from reality.




contents