News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies. Parent comment

Re:Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies by baybal2 on Sunday June 07, 2020 @03:57PM (#23450250)
> Gas powered model engines are not that unreliable, even for model airplanes.

Still incomparable to any other option. Having 1 in 1000 crash chance will disqualify it as a DHL alternative.

Putting 2 of them on the drone will surely make it cost more than $500

And putting even the cheapest turbine on it is out of question, unless you talk about toy turbines that are as unreliable as RC piston motors.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies by TylerE on Sunday June 07, 2020 @09:26PM (#23452690)
I wonder if a pulse jet (as used on the V-1) would be an option?

I've seen hobbyist level plans for them, and a pulsejet requires zero moving parts, so reliability should be excellent. The geometry of the engine does all the work.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies by baybal2 on Sunday June 07, 2020 @09:31PM (#23452717)
> pulsejet requires zero moving parts, so reliability should be excellent.

Valves, and pumps are moving parts too.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies by TylerE on Sunday June 07, 2020 @09:32PM (#23452725)
Modern pulsejets don't use valves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valveless_pulsejet

Fuel can be either gravity fed or possibly a pressurized system (e.g. fill the deadspace in the tanks with compressed nitrogen)

[ Parent | on HN ]