298
China’s ‘land aircraft carrier’ charges flying drone with microwave beam (www.scmp.com)
submitted 6 months ago by 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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, xrays are also radio waves. That doesn't make them inherently less dangerous. Plenty of people have made mistakes around ground and ship based radar systems too and have accidentally cooked their insides. Just because 5G conspiracy theorists took over that argument doesn't mean it has no basis in reality.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    Plenty of people...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    https://academic.oup.com/milmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/milmed/usaf613/8404557

    It doesn't mention specific cases, but there's a local man who described his time working on radar arrays during his time in the Navy before he was medically discharged. His explanation of events was that he turned off the array while he was performing maintenance on a specific radar antenna, but someone turned it back on when he was still working. He said he heard the array come back online and stopped working, but there was thermal damage done to his testes.

    I have no reason to doubt him because clearly its possible. But the primary point stands. There's enough evidence within the military to warrant safety guidelines when working with radar emitters.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent