this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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269
China’s ‘land aircraft carrier’ charges flying drone with microwave beam (www.scmp.com)
submitted 1 day ago by FTonsilStones@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
65 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Has already been done

https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/solar-powered-drone-design-2025/

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

That drone has no mass and uses all its energy to hold up the solar array. Good luck in winds.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 9 hours ago

Considering everybody talking about using these things in war it has the benefit of not being a suicide beacon visible to instruments for many many miles, unlike the microwave transmitters everybody else here want to carry with them

Also see;

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/05/09/powering-drones-with-ultra-thin-flexible-perovskite-pv-cells/

If you actually want to extend the lifetime of high performance autonomous drones in the field then it's more practical to do battery swaps

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That thing is just a dollar panel with the bare minimum amount of motors to hold up the solar panel. That not practical at all for someone that also needs to move quickly and fire munitions

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

If you think that's not practical, wait until you see something microwave powered trying to make quick moves. I want to see what you think it will do when it suddenly has to pass through an urban environment with a ton of obstacles. Are you gonna MIMO the damned microwave beam!?!?!? With millisecond trajectory updates!?!?!?

Not mention that a microwave power transmitter in war will die faster than any mobile radar station because it's so god damned trivial to detect and lock onto, you're losing that bullshit in seconds of turning it on

The only scenario where this wouldn't be total bullshit is perimeter monitoring drones flying a fixed path, where you for some reason really don't want to have to have multiple drones in rotation (which honestly doesn't make much sense either but at least that's just 80% BS instead of 100% BS)

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

try that with the drone in the article. ain't gonna work buddy.