Drones

Skyfront claims multirotor endurance world record with gas-electric drone

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One of Skyfront's Perimeter 8 drones in flight
Skyfront
One of Skyfront's Perimeter 8 drones in flight
Skyfront
A Perimeter 8 drone has flown from sunrise to sunset to claim a new endurance record
Skyfront
The standard Perimeter 8 drone has a video and control range of 62 miles (100 km)
Skyfront
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While their winged counterparts are designed to stay aloft for weeks at a time, multirotor drones are more renowned for their maneuverability. California-based drone manufacturer Skyfront was established in 2014 to push the flight duration boundaries of multirotor drones and is now claiming an endurance world record for its Perimeter 8, which stayed airborne for 13 hours, 3 minutes and 57 seconds, covering 205 miles (330 km) in the process.

With tip-to-tip dimensions of 6.5 x 6.25 ft (2 x 1.9 m) in flight configuration, the Perimeter 8 is powered by Skyfront's proprietary fuel-injected hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain, which the company says replaces the battery to extend flight times by a factor of 20. While the standard off-the-shelf Perimeter 8 has a payload-free maximum endurance of over five hours and range of 110 miles (177 km), the record breaker was fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank to more than double flight time.

"In an unheard of industry feat, our drone stayed aloft for the entire day," says Skyfront CEO Troy Mestler. "Outfitted with an auxiliary fuel tank, the Perimeter 8 captured the sun traversing the sky, rising and setting over California’s Coastal Ranges. This flight signals a paradigm shift in aviation for public safety and commercial applications."

The standard Perimeter 8 drone has a video and control range of 62 miles (100 km)
Skyfront

The Skyfront flight beats the Guinness World Record held by South Korea's Metavista Inc, whose hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered quadcopter flew for 12 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds in April 2019. That effort absolutely smashed the previous Guinness World Record of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 7 seconds, a record that Skyfront also claimed to beat in 2017 with a flight of 4 hours and 34 minutes by its Tailwind drone. However, no Guinness officials were on hand to document that feat, and there's no word any were present to verify this latest record so there may be no certificate for the Skyfront office wall coming from Guinness for this one either.

Company CEO, Troy Mestler, Ph.D., discusses the record-breaking flight in the video below.

Source: Skyfront via Businesswire

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5 comments
michael_dowling
Still pumps out CO2!
Nelson Hyde Chick
Once they start using drones to deliver packages it is really going to diminish the quality of life in the urban environment on account of the added noise.
ljaques
Too bad they didn't also post the max time/distance LOADED with different weights. There need to be comparisons made as all these companies build up these cool tools.
dan
@Nelson: No worries, (at least in the Western countries), societies will not allow this. urban mobility, including pizza delivery and commuting for the very most of us, will be ground based, not in the air. Though for remote areas and emergency smaller drones are likely to play an increasing role - hopefully for the good for us, but we all need to fight for our freedom and privacy! And then we can increase our quality of life! Cheers!
Techrex
?? Would it be technically possible for such a flying drone, when its electric batteries or fuel tank runs low, to secure itself on a high point like a tree top or tower top, where the winds are very strong, and let the wind hit their rotors like a windmill, so that the reverse rotations, makes their electric motors act like alternators or generators, to recharge its electric batteries out in the field, by this wind power option?