Looking through the specs the flight time is just 16-22 minutes. How close are we to some sort advancement in that area, as that seems to limit the possibilities somewhat?
Is this a 'when batteries become magical' thing?
Is this a 'when batteries become magical' thing?
Basically, yes.
To get more power you need a bigger battery, but if you have a bigger battery you are carrying more weight and thus need more power, so you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns.
Batteries are improving (and stronger/lighter materials to build with are helping as well), but nowhere near the sort of Moore-ish improvement we are used to seeing in other places.
So yeah.. batteries need to get magical or our power usage efficiency needs to get way better.
So some people simply have planes with vertical take off then the props rotate when you need to go faster/longer.
Thats a lot of mechs thus less reliable tho - at least so far. Also the props are huge and thus cause a lot of drag still. See the v22 osprey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtGjzbVb76U for ex.
Theres some experiments with covered props (but that lowers the efficiency at lower rotational speed) so that there is less friction when gliding forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d9Eg2s54PM (from this extensive build log: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1816216)
A production example: http://www.birdseyeview.aero/
One demonstrating autonomous flight with a 3D Robotics flight controller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEL1gQpDO28
1.) I assume people would want to record themselves doing something a bit more interesting than just walking in a wide open area at the same pace where 100' of cable can't get snagged on anything. 2.) Any sort of quick changes in direction are going to tug on the wire, at worst risking causing the drone to crash, at best causing the video to take you out of frame. 3.) If there's any sort of speed involved, the drag of that wire in the wind will eat up power. 4.) The weight of 100' of cable will add up quickly, especially if you want it to be robust enough to handle being snagged/tugged. You certainly don't want a break in the cable, because a sudden loss of power will be catastrophic.