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UAV Helicopter Flies 12 Hours Charged By Laser

garymortimer writes "LaserMotive (who last year won $900,000 in the NASA Power Beaming Challenge, one of the levels of the 'Space Elevator Games') have teamed up with Germany's Ascending Technologies to create an indoor flight record for electrically powered multicopters. The flight took place at the Future of Flight Aviation Center in Mukilteo, WA. LaserMotive is a Seattle-based company developing laser power beaming systems to transmit electricity without wires, for applications where wires are either cost prohibitive or physically impractical."

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:weight by BrightSpark · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Of course, the payload would be tiny too, milligrams I would think. And you would have to hope there was no dung or fruit trees on the way. And you need to control what they think. Nothing insurmountable, but maybe but lets stick to what can do first :-)

  2. Re:The ultimate weapon by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you can direct enough power through laser from a satellite in orbit to power a giant robot, then you don't need the giant robot.

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