Aircraft comprising hydrogen storage tanks

Abstract

An aircraft comprises a hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system, a plurality of like generally cylindrical hydrogen storage tanks and a conveying system arranged to convey hydrogen from the hydrogen storage tanks to the hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system. The aircraft further comprises a fuselage having a cargo bay (502) including one or more (510A-G) of the plurality of hydrogen storage tanks, the longitudinal axes (511A-G) of the one or more hydrogen storage tanks within the cargo bay extending parallel to the longitudinal axis (501) of the fuselage and lying in one or more planes (595, 597) extending across the width dimension of the cargo bay. The hydrogen storage tanks within the cargo bay have a common aspect ratio R in the range 4.2 ≤ R ≤ 25.7, allowing the volume of space with the cargo bay occupied by stored hydrogen to be maximised or approximately maximised.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An aircraft comprising a hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system, a plurality of like generally cylindrical hydrogen storage tanks and a conveying system arranged to convey hydrogen from the hydrogen storage tanks to the hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system, wherein the aircraft further comprises a fuselage having a cargo bay containing exactly seven like generally cylindrical hydrogen storage tanks arranged in a first set of three tanks and a second set of four tanks, the longitudinal axes of said seven hydrogen storage tanks within the cargo bay extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage and longitudinal axes of hydrogen storage tanks of the first and second sets lying in first and second planes respectively which extend across the width dimension of the cargo bay, the second plane being disposed vertically above the first plane, and wherein the longitudinal axis of any given hydrogen storage tank of the first set has a position across the width of the cargo bay between the positions of the longitudinal axes of two adjacent hydrogen storage tanks of the second set. 
     
     
         2 . An aircraft according to  claim 1  wherein the seven hydrogen storage tanks contained in the cargo bay have a common aspect ratio R having a value in the range 7.5 ≤ R ≤ 15.4. 
     
     
         3 . An aircraft according to  claim 2  wherein said hydrogen storage tanks have a common diameter d in the range 0.5 m ≤ d ≤ 0.63 m. 
     
     
         4 . An aircraft according to  claim 1  wherein the seven tanks within the cargo bay are distributed symmetrically about a vertical plane which passes through the central longitudinal axis of the fuselage and bisects the cargo bay. 
     
     
         5 . An aircraft according to  claim 1  wherein the conveying system comprises a manifold system providing for one or more of the seven hydrogen storage tanks within the cargo bay to be removed from the cargo bay such that the remaining hydrogen storage tanks within the cargo bay remain operatively coupled to the hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system.