There are some parts I really don't understand. From the text article,
" the plan is to create a drone system that acts as /*floating wifi
routers*/ to bridge the internet gaps on the ground"
Wifi routers, 15 /miles/ up in the sky? What kind of wifi card do you
need in your system to throw your signal that far? (Water cooled cell
phones, maybe?)
I suppose it's not actually WIFI, and they're using an analogy on the
assumption that the reader wouldn't understand what's actually being
done, but none the less I found that pretty seriously unclear.
I'm also pretty amazed at the concept of solar powering the things. If
they really draw 5 kw (as per the last paragraph), well, that's
impressive on the one hand (7 horsepower or thereabouts is not much for
keeping a plane up) but on the other hand, the solar panels need to put
out more than twice that much if it's going to stay up 24 hours, which
means they're looking at a minimum of something like 15 square meters of
solar panels, assuming something like 50% efficiency (and assuming it's
high noon for 12 hours every day). That sounds like a lot.
On 08/05/2016 09:59 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Solar airplanes have been a useless tour de force up until now. This
one is intended to provide internet service to parts of the world that
do not have it, such as Africa. This airplane will fly for months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOez_Hk80TI
http://www.realclearlife.com/2016/08/05/facebooks-dream-of-internet-everywhere-gains-momentum/
Needless to say, this would be far easier and cheaper with cold fusion.
- Jed
