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A comment on Sprite: a different drone. Parent comment

Re:Sprite: a different drone by stephengillie on Tuesday May 19, 2015 @03:17PM (#9572443)
The problem is you're relying solely on the propellers for lift. Batteries are heavy and only store a small amount of electricity. You need to attach a helium balloon or some other means of lift that doesn't require electricity.

Some sort of miniaturized hot-air system might work as well.

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Re:Sprite: a different drone by lsaferite on Tuesday May 19, 2015 @05:13PM (#9573162)
Might be an interesting idea for a UAV like this to include a mount point at the top where you could attach a helium balloon that could carry some percentage of the weight less that 100%. That reduction in weight would translate into longer run-time. Of course it also would reduce maneuverability.
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