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6ft hovering drones? Hovered over a town all night? These are unusual drones. You have to put engineering effort in to keep a drone up for more than 30 minutes
by plutonorm 7y ago
6ft hovering drones? Hovered over a town all night? These are unusual drones. You have to put engineering effort in to keep a drone up for more than 30 minutes and 6ft is really big for a hovering drone.
- crca 7y agoRight? At that point you’re trading off between useful payload and batteries. I’m wondering if maybe they’re witnessing a loiter pattern, and misrepresenting is as a hover. These likely aren’t aerospace Engineers giving quotes here.
- crca 7y agoA 6ft fixed wing drone could fairly easily achieve what’s described in the article if it was really a loiter, not a hover. A multirotor would be an engineering feat.
- duelingjello 7y ago30 ft wingspan powered glider drone made from composite materials would be even more energy-efficient. Multirotor drones have low energy densities and waste it rapidly. Other aspects to consider are that the “drones” are replaced by others as batteries deplete or that the drones aren’t really there as long as people believe. It’s possible that someone is doing this as a hobby for artistic, conspiracy theory “reconnaissance“ or benign data gathering-purposes or conducting some sort of investigation or intelligence gathering.
- anotheryou 7y agoI bet hovering meant a tight circle and those are winged (or maybe even blimps)
- olex 7y agoA 6ft wingspan fixed wing "drone" is easy enough to build for several hours of flight endurance. It won't be able to exactly hover, but it could fly circles at slow speed, making the impression of barely moving if positioned high enough up.