TOP 7 LONGEST Flying Drones

Have you ever wondered what is the longest flying drone? Well, you have come to the right place because this video covers some of the most incredible drones which can achieve long flight times in different configurations. So once again, let's begin the top 7 countdown. Beginning at number 7, the US-1. Built by Impossible Aerospace, which is an interesting name by the way, the US-1 is one of the longest flying electric drones. The quadcopter is a little bit different from its electric counterparts since it's basically built out of batteries, meaning the batteries are incorporated through the entire frame. So there is no battery swap in here and you will basically need two of these US-1s in order to achieve constant flight time. Nevertheless, it's still quite impressive that it can achieve 2 hours of flight without any payload, but it still can carry 2.9 pounds for about an hour. Getting to number 6 and it's the Hybrix 2.0. In order to achieve over 2 hours of flight time, you either need a whole new revolutionary battery or you need some sort of hybrid power source. The Hybrix 2.0 does exactly this and it utilizes a two-stroke gas engine and batteries for powering its electric motors. The result is a quadcopter which can fly up to 4 hours and be easily refilled in just under 10 minutes. The Hybrix can also carry over 5 pounds so it's a pretty hefty and robust drone. The only downside that I noticed is that this thing's a little bit louder than your typical electric setup, so your neighbors may not like you too much after flying this thing for 4 hours early in the morning. At number 5 and it's the Perimeter drone. Yet another hybrid setup has emerged on the market and this one can fly for around 5 hours or up to 110 miles which is pretty crazy. Utilizing electric fuel injection, the UAV is quite versatile in a wide range of altitudes. The Perimeter has quite a few sensors including engine telemetry and control which are sent back down to the ground station so the operator can monitor any type of anomaly. But since this thing can fly over 50 miles, I would probably be more concerned about signal degradation and autonomous waypoints. Getting to number 4 and it's the 800W built by Intelligent Energy. To get over 5 hours of flight time, you're going to need to go beyond hybrid gas electric setups and get into hydrogen fuel cells. Intelligent Energy's new drone achieved a 12 hour flight time using liquid hydrogen. The module provides over 2.4 kilowatts of power, but supplemental batteries were used for peak loads. Now there are fuel cells which last up to 10,000 hours, so longevity shouldn't be a problem here. However, there is some technical know-how and you need a hydrogen source, so it's not really the most practical multi-copter out there. Unless you have a mad scientist's garage or you live by a supply store. We get to number 3 and it's yet another hydrogen powered drone. Now this drone obviously uses a set of wings and one additional rotor in the back, so it's a VTOL aircraft with plane gliding abilities. Ultimately, this means that it's a high drone and it can fly for around 15 hours, which is pretty incredible. It's a bit like the 800W in the fact that you need a source of hydrogen, so it might not be the most practical thing out there for conventional use. This company builds quite a few drones, and I'm going to assume that it's going to carry an orthographic camera, along with surveillance equipment for mapping and patrolling. So now that we have covered commercially available drones, which can fly for about 12 hours, we now get into experimental aircraft, with number 2 being a solar powered drone. A student team from the University of Singapore built a really innovative drone, which draws its power directly from solar cells. This allows the craft to stay airborne basically all day, or until night time comes around. In order to do this, the quadcopter was built primarily out of carbon fiber, and it does not incorporate any extra batteries, so it's pretty much a bare bones quadcopter with a GPS unit. Obviously, it's not really the most stable or versatile thing in the world, and it's more of a tech demonstrator. So now we get to number 1, and you are probably asking, well, what's going to beat a solar powered drone? That's a very good question, and it actually comes down to wireless charging. And this will let you fly a drone continuously, until mechanical failure. Now, G.E.T. is one of the first companies to set up a system like this, to charge drones in mid-flight. It's a concept which has been known for some time, and there are basically two forms of this type of wireless energy transference, one being induction, and the other being resonance. So in this particular demonstrator, they are using magnetic resonance, and this basically allows you to charge multiple drones at the same time, while flying in mid-air. It might not be the most practical thing out there, but it's still really cool to see. So once again, thanks for watching, please like the video if you found it informational or enjoyable, and make sure to subscribe to my channel.