Re:The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV
by goda90 on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @01:47PM
(#19201591)
I wonder if the development of thinner, flexible solar panels and batteries would make a lighter than air UAV a better choice for eternal flight. That way it only needs to power rotors for positioning instead of maintaining flight.
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Re:The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network: Eternal Flight UAV
by jselfridge on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @01:55PM
(#19201677)
DARPA already looked at that through ISIS. The problem is the massive volume of gas within the airship. Even the lightest winds require a substantial amount of power to travel or station-keep. Google is using weather balloons, but they don't have any active controls, so they drift aimlessly away from the equator, and then need to be manually picked up after about a month.