Startup’s Gas-Electric Engines May Pave Way For Package Delivery And Human Flight

Most drones, even aircraft specifically designed for deliveries, are powered by electric batteries, and the technology is limited by relatively short flight times.

Top Flight Technologies, a company co-founded by MIT engineering PhD Long Phan, is looking to change that paradigm with a hybrid gas-to-electric drone, which would greatly increase the range and payload of an electric-only aircraft.

Top Flight's drone could fly for as long as two and a half hours, according to a story posted on the MIT website. That would give the aircraft a range of about 100 miles carrying a 20 pound payload.

The company is also developing a 100-kilowatt hybrid drone that could lift up to 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds, which could eventually lead to a drone that could carry people. Phan said that such an aircraft may be ready for testing as early as 2020.

Phan said one of the major hurdles of a hybrid drone is heat, which the company solved by adding small fans, and cooling fins. Vibration was also an issue, but rubber vibrations dampers solved that problem. He calls what they have developed a "Toyota Prius for the sky."

Phan said that the hybrid drones have military as well as civilian applications, and that the company is also researching the use of gas turbine rather than internal combustion engines, which would again increase the power available to the aircraft.

(Image courtesy Top Flight Technologies)

FMI: Original Story