Problems...
- Finite fuel stores - conventional UAV's use fuel or battery power sources to maintain flight, but when these empty, the aircraft can no longer sustain flight.
- Heavy operator workload - conventional UAV's require constant supervision to plan each new waypoint and monitor progress along the way. Once the destination is reached, the operator must again take time to specify new waypoints
Answer... Search out and Extract energy from the atmosphere
- Increase duration - by using natual air currents to gain altitude, the stored onboard fuel reserves can be used more sparingly potentially eliminating the need for fuel consumption during flight!
- Increase range - by using natural air currents to gain altitude, the vehicle can glide a farther distance, potentially increasing range well beyond any fuel powered aircraft!
- Automatic flight planning - the operator must only specify the end goal point. From the current location, the glider will create its own path while looking for thermal sources and traversing the distance. Once at the goal point, the glider will continue indefinitely in an altidute-gaining orbit above the target
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