I wonder if the development of thinner, flexible solar panels and batteries would make a lighter than air UAV a better choice for eternal flight. That way it only needs to power rotors for positioning instead of maintaining flight.
DARPA already looked at that through ISIS. The problem is the massive volume of gas within the airship. Even the lightest winds require a substantial amount of power to travel or station-keep. Google is using weather balloons, but they don't have any active controls, so they drift aimlessly away from the equator, and then need to be manually picked up after about a month.
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I wonder if the development of thinner, flexible solar panels and batteries would make a lighter than air UAV a better choice for eternal flight. That way it only needs to power rotors for positioning instead of maintaining flight.
DARPA already looked at that through ISIS. The problem is the massive volume of gas within the airship. Even the lightest winds require a substantial amount of power to travel or station-keep. Google is using weather balloons, but they don't have any active controls, so they drift aimlessly away from the equator, and then need to be manually picked up after about a month.