Long ago in autumn 2005, when Len was lank and my hair was full (okay it was less thin), I sat in one of the many cafeterias at our university as Len came by and asked if I had a little time. Distracted by my coffee and the nice view (the cafeteria was nearly the only place to see some women) I said yes. If I had guessed then…I would probably had said yes, too. So he explained to me that he had found a competition. This was the Berblinger Competition, with the objectives of the preliminary design of a two-seated aircraft which should be outstanding in environmental friendliness, safety, construction and economics. He had already talked to our Professor Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann, who has been formally winner of this competition in 1996 with the solar powered aircraft icaré 2. He was very pleased about that idea so he supported Len to take part in this competition. So Len and Prof. Voit-Nitschmann made some brainstorming and came to the conclusion that the best idea would be a fuel cell powered aircraft with a very aerodynamic design causing less drag and therefore low energy consumption. Additionally will this drive train emit no exhaust fumes except for water vapour and very little noise. This was the moment when I got involved. He asked me if I liked to participate in this competition and do the work for the drive train. Well, I was at that time on the lookout for a diploma thesis so why not?! After we elaborated the preliminary design under the name Hydrogenius and sent it to the city of Ulm, organizer of the Berblinger Competition, we finalized our diploma thesis and waited for the result.


Autumn 2006: Victory at the Berblinger Competition

We won the Berblinger Competition. Now we had a preliminary design of an aircraft comparable to conventional aircraft in performance and range and which is environmental friendly and economic if you desist from the purchase price. In addition we had some price-money from the competition. With the money we celebrated our victory and invited lots of people from science and industry. One of these visitors was Artur Fischer, founder of the Fischerwerke, honour senator of the Universität Stuttgart. He was so convinced by the project Hydrogenius that he donated us the first 100.000 €. Well, we choked up and clearly moved decided to realize the Project Hydrogenius.

Spring 2007: Artur Fischer and the model of our HydrogeniusEditorial Note: Club of Pioneers stands for the support of upcoming pioneers in the field of sustainable mobility. Since we are already covering the development of the Ventomobil, we are proud to present another promising project coming from exactly the same University in Stuttgart. It's about the amazing idea to fly with Hydrogen: The Hydrogenius project! Enjoy the first guestblog written by Steffen who founded with Len the Hydrogenius Team... and stay tuned, the guys will keep you updated!