this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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China’s ‘land aircraft carrier’ charges flying drone with microwave beam (www.scmp.com)
submitted 4 days ago by FTonsilStones@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
73 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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[–] sircac@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Physical coupling and emergency decoupling of a fuel tube in flight due to engaging or having to land and take off from an air carrier seems necessarily more slow and risky than beam interrumpion or nor having to land/take off at all.

Current batteries have not been under the same amount of research than fuel deposits, so I think that being matture enough, contacless repowering seems a great asset in any scenario.

[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 1 points 13 hours ago

Physical coupling and emergency decoupling of a fuel tube in flight due to engaging or having to land and take off from an air carrier seems necessarily more slow and risky than beam interrumpion or nor having to land/take off at all.

Refuelling could be slower, I agree, but I am not sure that is more risky, wireless recharging simply has a different set of problems.

Current batteries have not been under the same amount of research than fuel deposits, so I think that being matture enough, contacless repowering seems a great asset in any scenario.

True, but as far as you can advance contactless recharge, I am afraid physic and air are not on your side.

But as I said, I am curious about the development of this technology, leaving aside the fact that basically you cannot deploy it anyware if not your home county (or allied) and that in my opinion is a way bigger limit to it usefulness.