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Re:Lily – Drone camera by Tloewald on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @05:20PM (#9534982)
Terminal velocity for these things will not be terribly high.
Re:Lily – Drone camera by TrevorJ on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @03:03PM (#9541222)
Probably on the order of 120 MPH or 55.8 meters per second. The drone weighs 1.2 Kilograms. The kinetic energy on impact would be 1800 Joules give or take. A 357 Magnum generates about 873 Joules.

The energy we are talking about is not insignificant. I'm actually in favor of allowing people to fly drones with as little restriction as possible but let's not pretend there aren't some risks.

Re:Lily – Drone camera by Tloewald on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @10:37PM (#9543175)
How do you figure 120mph? It's ~1kg and I would guess has a higher surface area relative to mass than a person whose terminal velocity is about 120mph.

In any event, it takes a person 8s to get close to terminal velocity — that's a drop of 300m or so.

The energy involved is certainly non trivial but energy is not the whole story. The densest, heaviest pieces will be the battery and motors.

Re:Lily – Drone camera by DannyBee on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @07:57PM (#9535832)
So, they go 25mph normally, i wonder if the terminal velocity is more or less than that.

Too lazy to do the calculations :P

Re:Lily – Drone camera by TrevorJ on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @02:55PM (#9541174)
Way more. Probably on the order of around 120 mph