While the technology is still at an early stage, it may one day allow drones to fly indefinitely.

Scientists in China have demonstrated a wireless power transmission system that uses a ground-based microwave emitter to beam energy to an antenna array mounted on the aircraft’s underside. Importantly, they were able to do this while both the drone and charging system were in motion.

In tests, the car-mounted system kept fixed-wing drones in the air for up to 3.1 hours at an altitude of 15 metres (49 feet). The key challenge that the team overcame was maintaining alignment between the emitter and the drone during flight, wrote Song Liwei, the project’s leader.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    You can’t make a reasonable microwave receiver lighter than solar film and efficiency peaks around 50% in FIXED installations

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/microwave-power-transmission

    In JPL 30 kW power was transmitted for 1.54 km with reception conversion array having an efficiency of 80%

    That was 8 years ago.

    What I’m describing are… currently extremely active areas of research.

    Microwave power transfer has been used for many applications since its inception by Maxwell. Wireless charging of EVs and UAV using microwave power are some of the widely researched examples.

    you can easily assume less than a quarter (under 10%) when the target isn’t just moving, but is also changing angles and distance (you’d have to put the receiver on a gimbal like for cameras)

    You should maybe look into the level of precision that things like Phalanx CIWS systems have at tracking a moving target, with the ability to throw bullets at it, and hit it.

    Or basically any SPAAG type platform that throws rounds down range.

    Or I dunno, MASERs used in deep space transmission.

    Or all the research that has gone into developing tracking gimbal systems that do intentionally use lasers or some kind of DEW to shoot down small drones, or damage aircraft in flight, or burn out incoming missiles.

    Hell of a lot easier to track a friendly aircraft.

    and now it’s also interfering with flight (propeller airflow, unless you do weird propeller geometries or tilted body flight

    Genuinely no clue what you are talking about.

    Are you assuming only like, quadcopters here?

    We’ve had RQ 4 drone aircraft the size of WW2 medium bomber planes, with jet engines, for 20 years now.

    I’m fairly sure that a jet engine produces a considerable amount of consistent heat.

    Do… you think aircraft engineers… do not know… how to handle… heat?

    Shall I describe a ramjet to you?

    Or maybe we could go with something like the Space Shuttle’s reentry tiles?

    In conclusion, you are vastly uniformed as to the state of… not even state of the art technology, that would be incredibly relevant to this discussion.