{"id":193247,"date":"2024-07-21T12:25:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T17:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/ultra-light-electrostatic-vtol-drone-flies-indefinitely-in-sunlight"},"modified":"2024-07-21T12:25:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T17:25:50","slug":"ultra-light-electrostatic-vtol-drone-flies-indefinitely-in-sunlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/ultra-light-electrostatic-vtol-drone-flies-indefinitely-in-sunlight","title":{"rendered":"Ultra-light electrostatic VTOL drone flies indefinitely in sunlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bf7RjMUXomE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This remarkable miniature rotorcraft is so lightweight and efficient that it can lift its own mass given nothing but sunlight. The entire thing weighs about as much as four paperclips, and it can fly all day if the sun\u2019s shining.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at China\u2019s Beihang University and the Center of Advanced Aero-Engine, have unveiled CouloumbFly, a palm-sized miniature rotorcraft that weighs just 4.21 g (0.15 oz) \u2013 yet still boasts a rotor diameter of 20 cm (7.9 in), making it around 600 times lighter than any other comparable small solar-powered drone.<\/p>\n<p>In tethered testing under natural sunlight conditions, CouloumbFly got itself airborne within a second and managed an hour of flight without power diminishing, before a mechanical failure brought it back down. Not much of a big deal if it was a glide-capable winged drone \u2013 but this is a miniature helicopter that\u2019s entirely responsible for generating its own lift, and managing that on solar energy alone is an extraordinary feat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This remarkable miniature rotorcraft is so lightweight and efficient that it can lift its own mass given nothing but sunlight. The entire thing weighs about as much as four paperclips, and it can fly all day if the sun\u2019s shining. Researchers at China\u2019s Beihang University and the Center of Advanced Aero-Engine, have unveiled CouloumbFly, a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1488,1633,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drones","category-solar-power","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}