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Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

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Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#11

Post by TeMPOraL »

philfreo wrote: post #10

Must be Birds vs. Drones day on HN: http://cl.ly/image/3F0v1f2l3j0Z

I guess this article is here because someone mentioned it earlier today on the bird thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6528099

(In drone vs. bird I'm all for UAVs! ;). I know that birds are more advanced / sophisticated pieces of technology, but drones are ours, made by humans. Regardless of all the unfortunate military application, I feel proud for humanity that we keep on inventing more and more amazing things.)

Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#12

Post by marvin »

dfbrown wrote: post #7
mik4el wrote: post #5

How will the drones handle bad weather if they're continuously operational? They're not really quick so they can't outrun all kinds of weather.

Is there much weather at 65000 ft?

Not really. Thunder clouds usually top out around 60.000 feet. There are some wind phenomena that could reach this high, but mostly I think it's calm at this altitude. The air is so thin you would have to have very strong winds for there to be a problem.

Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#13

Post by tfe »

knappe wrote: post #9
dfbrown wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there much weather at 65000 ft?

At that height you can see the curvature of the Earth. For perspective here is a picture: http://imgur.com/I5qQA3D EDIT: Fair point. The max height on cumulonimbus clouds are 60,000 feet[0]. Effectively there is zero weather. [0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud

To be fair, in a lot of those "curvature of the earth" pictures, the apparent curvature comes from the wide-angle lens more than actual curvature of the earth.

Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#14

Post by samstave »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #11
philfreo wrote: post #10

Must be Birds vs. Drones day on HN: http://cl.ly/image/3F0v1f2l3j0Z

I guess this article is here because someone mentioned it earlier today on the bird thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6528099 (In drone vs. bird I'm all for UAVs! ;). I know that birds are more advanced / sophisticated pieces of technology, but drones are ours, made by humans. Regardless of all the unfortunate military application, I feel proud for humanity that we keep on inventing more and more amazing t…

It's just too bad that we keep using these amazing thing to spy on, control and kill our fellow humans. Good wor everyone!

Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#16

Post by samstave »

Game_Ender wrote: post #6

So this looks pretty cool, and their marketing department already coined the term "atmospheric orbit", but their aircraft currently looks like vaporware. All of their videos are pre-rendered and the short clip in the article is too [0] small to be the aircraft they are trying to sell. It also raises some flags when their quotes are from Senators and their "social proof" logos aren't customers they are supplies of the…

Fake it til you make it with sweet sweet government money (re appropriated from the citizenry for their own good)

Re: Aerospace Company Develops Drone That Can Fly Continuously For 5 Years

#17

Post by fooqux »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #11
philfreo wrote: post #10

Must be Birds vs. Drones day on HN: http://cl.ly/image/3F0v1f2l3j0Z

I guess this article is here because someone mentioned it earlier today on the bird thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6528099 (In drone vs. bird I'm all for UAVs! ;). I know that birds are more advanced / sophisticated pieces of technology, but drones are ours, made by humans. Regardless of all the unfortunate military application, I feel proud for humanity that we keep on inventing more and more amazing t…

One advantage of birds is that their droppings are easily washed off my car, unlike the droppings of UAVs.
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