Record-breaking hybrid drone stays aloft for over four hours

Re:Record-breaking hybrid drone stays aloft for over four hours by chillingeffect on Saturday December 30, 2017 @12:51AM (#16034046)

This is something I've wondered about for a long time. Good to see it happen :)

Could it go even longer if the motors burned the fuel directly?

Could fuel motor speeds be controlled with enough bandwidth to remain stable like electric ones?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Record-breaking hybrid drone stays aloft for over four hours by ggg9990 on Saturday December 30, 2017 @01:07AM (#16034091)

Four separate gasoline engines would be very heavy and a single engine with distribution driveshafts would be mechanically complicated. For fuel-powered rotary wings the speed cannot be varied fast enough to maintain control, so you'd use a collective pitch control on the rotor blades to achieve stable flight.

[ Parent | on HN ]