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In related news, the Airbus Zephyr just set a new record for endurance flight and is still aloft: https://www.space.com/airbus-zephyr-drone-long-endurance-flig

In related news, the Airbus Zephyr just set a new record for endurance flight and is still aloft: https://www.space.com/airbus-zephyr-drone-long-endurance-flight-record https://www.space.com/airbus-zephyr-drone-long-endurance-fli... An experimental aircraft tested in conjunction with the United States Army has been in the air above the Sonoran Desert for 42 days, breaking its own record for longest uncrewed flight. The solar-powered, high-altitude Airbus Zephyr S took off from the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground on June 15, 2022 and has since been flying patterns over the Yuma Test Range and Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. The flight has now broken Zephyr's previous record of 25 days, 23 hours that it set in August 2018. The latest flight has seen Zephyr reach a number of additional milestones including its first flight over water, first flight into international airspace, the longest continuous flight while being controlled through satellite communications, and the farthest flight from its launch point, according to a U.S. Army statement (opens in new tab).

dredmorbius 4y ago
Thanks, yes. That's the "weeks or months" I was talking about. I'd be interested in knowing what its flight profile looks like. The Solar Impulse manned solar-powered aircraft that flew around the world (though with stops) performed energy potential banking by climbing over the course of the day, then descending through the night. Altitude was thus a large part of the "battery" storage system, banking energy received during the day. Article below describes the aircraft, if not the energy management element. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-first-solar-powered-flight-around-world-180968000/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-first-solar...
- sitkack 4y ago
  America's proxy war in the Ukraine, while full of video-op content from state media about kids with high tech weapons killing other kids in tin cans makes it seem like the good guys are winning. Everyone loses. Alpha Go plus some drone kit from aliexpress and banggood is the start of WW3. If America does anything well, it is blowback. Russia's utter dysfunction would and should have been a long term strategic asset, but we burned it in Ukraine. Good technologists are globally distributed, everyone know where this is going and it will only cost a buck oh five. Often times, the winning move is not to play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiD86FtF2x0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiD86FtF2x0
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    Leading your response with a gross mischaracterisation of a Russian war of aggression ... somewhat overwhelms any point you might have been trying to make here. Who is "we"? Good technologists ... tend to migrate toward attractive remuneration and/or sociopolitical environments, circumstances permitting.
    - Nomentatus 4y ago
      There can be proxy wars in which one side is acting on the defence, I don't know if that's what your interlocutor had in mind or how pure his intentions are, but there can be. This is an odd case where the proxy isn't attacking and Russia is unlikely to be a proxy for China, granted. I glanced at the youtube he linked to but didn't start it up. Too vague and blustery and idiosyncratic to warrant my time.
      - dredmorbius 4y ago
        Again, focus on this point derails the initial discussion with little basis or relevance to the matter at hand: role, relevance, and origin of drone warfare, for a flamebait emphasis which HN guidelines specifically advise against.
        Nomentatus 4y ago
        Noting the definition of proxy doesn't always imply aggression? I'm therefore trying to stop a fork due to a perhaps misunderstood comment taking us into other territory.
    - sitkack 4y ago
      I didn't say who the aggressor was. With the west, "we" are pumping in billions of aid and the US DoD and the State Department finally getting to fight Russia without having to fight Russia, we have a proxy war. But ignore I said that, because it tangential to the point I was making and the point you ignored. Good technologists are everywhere on the planet. This is a supporting comment in that "the good guys" don't have a monopoly on the ability to create hyper-lethal, extremely low cost automated weapons. The point which didn't land, is that the war in Ukraine, regardless of how we got there is funded by two parties and is being technologically participated in by many more. America is really good at blowback, like that is all we export. The low-cost, high-enough drone and autonomous weapons that are created during this war will have huge implications. Something we should have thought about before going down this path.

dredmorbius 4y ago

Thanks, yes. That's the "weeks or months" I was talking about. I'd be interested in knowing what its flight profile looks like. The Solar Impulse manned solar-powered aircraft that flew around the world (though with stops) performed energy potential banking by climbing over the course of the day, then descending through the night. Altitude was thus a large part of the "battery" storage system, banking energy received during the day. Article below describes the aircraft, if not the energy management element. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-first-solar-powered-flight-around-world-180968000/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-first-solar...

sitkack 4y ago
America's proxy war in the Ukraine, while full of video-op content from state media about kids with high tech weapons killing other kids in tin cans makes it seem like the good guys are winning. Everyone loses. Alpha Go plus some drone kit from aliexpress and banggood is the start of WW3. If America does anything well, it is blowback. Russia's utter dysfunction would and should have been a long term strategic asset, but we burned it in Ukraine. Good technologists are globally distributed, everyone know where this is going and it will only cost a buck oh five. Often times, the winning move is not to play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiD86FtF2x0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiD86FtF2x0
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Leading your response with a gross mischaracterisation of a Russian war of aggression ... somewhat overwhelms any point you might have been trying to make here. Who is "we"? Good technologists ... tend to migrate toward attractive remuneration and/or sociopolitical environments, circumstances permitting.
  - Nomentatus 4y ago
    There can be proxy wars in which one side is acting on the defence, I don't know if that's what your interlocutor had in mind or how pure his intentions are, but there can be. This is an odd case where the proxy isn't attacking and Russia is unlikely to be a proxy for China, granted. I glanced at the youtube he linked to but didn't start it up. Too vague and blustery and idiosyncratic to warrant my time.
    - dredmorbius 4y ago
      Again, focus on this point derails the initial discussion with little basis or relevance to the matter at hand: role, relevance, and origin of drone warfare, for a flamebait emphasis which HN guidelines specifically advise against.
      - Nomentatus 4y ago
        Noting the definition of proxy doesn't always imply aggression? I'm therefore trying to stop a fork due to a perhaps misunderstood comment taking us into other territory.
  - sitkack 4y ago
    I didn't say who the aggressor was. With the west, "we" are pumping in billions of aid and the US DoD and the State Department finally getting to fight Russia without having to fight Russia, we have a proxy war. But ignore I said that, because it tangential to the point I was making and the point you ignored. Good technologists are everywhere on the planet. This is a supporting comment in that "the good guys" don't have a monopoly on the ability to create hyper-lethal, extremely low cost automated weapons. The point which didn't land, is that the war in Ukraine, regardless of how we got there is funded by two parties and is being technologically participated in by many more. America is really good at blowback, like that is all we export. The low-cost, high-enough drone and autonomous weapons that are created during this war will have huge implications. Something we should have thought about before going down this path.