On a bright, blue morning at Hamburg Airport, the aeronautics industry came a giant step closer to changing the future path of alternative energy aircraft. That’s the morning that the Antares DLR H-2 motor glider became the first aircraft in history to take off solely under hydrogen cell power. While both the Antares and a Boeing hydrogen fuel cell powered plane have flown before, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 marks the first time that any manned aircraft has achieved lift-off without the assistance of a hybrid electric motor.

The Antares DLR H-2 was developed by the German Aerospace Center – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, shortened to DLR in common speech. Lange Aviation, BASF Fuel Cells and Serenergy, a Danish company that provides hydrogen fuel cells for DLR’s flight research. The small craft is capable of speeds up to 187 miles per hour, though it only reached 105 miles per hour on its maiden hydrogen-powered takeoff, thanks to the extra weight of additional hydrogen cells.

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