Skip to main content

Will the VTOL aircraft be completely replaced by drones?

The first flight of the VTOL aircraft was in 1907, over a century has passed, and it is still active in the stage of different industries, such as shooting amazing videos for films, recording footage for mapping software, delivering cargo and packages for logistics, etc.


While the unmanned aerial vehicle, drones, occurred in 1849, even earlier than the VTOL, but did not glow until recently after commercial applications stop being its major and only stage, its expanding speed is much faster than the VTOL aircraft due to the compact structure, easy to use remote controlling platforms and the affordable price. What stops it from completely replacing the VTOL aircraft is the limited flight time, which cannot be fixed by replacing or changing some internal elements before a more powerful energy container is developed to replace the current batteries.



The comparison is clear, between the flight time, size, and price.

So the market activates its influence and divides into two big portions the VTOL and drones based on the flight time requirement mostly. But each of them is trying to expand its territories by reducing its disadvantage, like size, and price. Now there are smaller and cheaper VTOL drones with shorter flight times (like the Autel Dragonfish), and bigger drones with longer flight times and a little bit more expensive (like the DJI Matrice 300). Their applications’ boundary gets blurrier day by day, and all struggle to survive. We can find more and more drones being used for photography, inspection, surveillance, emergency, etc. We can also find some VTOL drones being applied for civilian applications, such as coastal patrolling, first response, and disaster data collection for the insurance company.

The core issue is about the power, if the drone could be free from the power limit, it would steal more opportunities from the VTOL. However, there is no sign of a revolutionary battery technology coming, only several drone charging docks are developed, which brings potential threats to the VTOL aircraft’s market share but is not deadly. Because the flight time of a drone is still the same, for large-area continuous surveying work, only the VTOL can do the job.

Yes, the VTOL aircraft is on the decline, some company already given up on it, such as the Parrot, but it will keep lingering before the new power-containing technology came.

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 autonomous drone charging and docking stations

Auto mated drone docks are entering into unprecedented competition before the final release of the DJI dock. All these drone docking and charging stations share the same major features including automatic takeoff for carrying out BVOL flight missions, then automated landing and charging the drone for a new round of flight missions.   Some drone charging dock companies has its self-developed drone with a variety of flight times and payload capacities, such as the Sunflower labs, Skydio, Percepto, Easy Aerial, and Dronehub. Some drone dock providers only offer the hardware part, like HEISHA Tech, Skycharge, Hextronics, IDRONEIMAGES, and HIVE Droneport. Not all of these autonomous drone charging dock manufacturers are using the drone battery charging solution, some are taking the battery swapping technology, including Hextronics, Dronehub, and Hive Droneport. Here is the list:   1.  Percepto (2014, USA & Israel, <  2 00 employees) The autonomous Inspection ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Top 5 automated security drone systems

Security drone systems are rising in speed much faster than before as the requirement for autonomous solutions grows. In some regions, the covid-19 is shaking the stability of people’s daily life, and riots and violence are increasing. Which is boosting the demand for security drone systems.    What matters most to a security drone system? Many companies are endeavoring the progress of autonomous drone systems, but the harsh reality is it may still take a while before a fully autonomous drone system is complete like the unmanned car, there is a giant step exists between 99% and 100% in this case.  No matter how autonomous a drone can make, controlling the flight mission relies on software, which requires humans to trigger it and review the received data.    A. Long time on duty (night vision)  B. Long-range covered C. Quick automated recharge of the drone   1. Sunflower labs (2016, USA & Switzerland, < 50 employees)   Sunflower Labs is one...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to use robots to handle the population decline?

Rumors are spreading around about the population decline worldwide, but we still see crowds at every crossroad when we are waiting for traffic lights, and we feel the number of people in the malls, parks, and museums.    What’s really going on?  “Global population growth reached a peak in 1962 and 1963 with an annual growth rate of 2.2%; but since then, world population growth has halved.” from ourworldindata.org The trends of decline seem unstoppable, no doubt, our future will be filled with elders, yet there are not enough energetic young people to serve them, how to deal with that? We will have to rely on technologies, especially robots. “The industrial robotics market is projected to grow from USD 15.7 billion in 2022 to USD 30.8 billion by 2027” according to a press from Yahoo finance. These numbers indicate a noticeable fact: robot technology is getting mature and is ready to serve more people. But there sits a roadblock between the robots and the autonomy, the powe...
Post a Comment
Read more