I had an idea that I wanted to see if people thought was possible (more as a thought experiment, rather than something I actually would do).
Do you think it would be possible to modify a Mavic drone to have the ability to fly across the United States from coast to coast. Here is how I propose this could be accomplished:1. Modify the drone to use cellular network for communication and not wifi.
2. Attach some sort of deployable solar charger onto the drone that could be deployed once the drone has landed.
3. Fly the drone once a day and then re-charge the battery for the rest of the day.

For now I will ignore issues like rain, theft, and any FAA rules around this. I'm curious if people think some sort of solar charger could be attached to the drone that could charge the battery sufficiently and if the drone could be modified to use cellular for communication. I know that the solar charging could be particularly challenging given the likely surface area of any solar charging panel that could be attached to the drone.

Here are some thoughts....

Put simply, the solar charger will not work, and the basic reason is the aircraft uses power at about 5 times the rate that it can be charged.

Far better to have a large number of batteries and change them as they are used. Perhaps fly alongside the road while driving beside the aircraft, land when battery reaches a conservative low level and change the battery.

Charge the batteries from a quantity of car chargers in the car while driving, aiming to use one complete set of batteries per day, then rest them overnight.

Wow!! Someone been on lockdown for to long.

Woe Posted at 4-28 06:22
Wow!! Someone been on lockdown for to long.

Possibly influenced per avatar.   Affecting all of us.

Paul_ Posted at 4-29 07:52
Possibly influenced per avatar.   Affecting all of us.

You may be on to something.