Better than a Lipo Battery = 1 hour flight time...

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If you like speculation you will love the battery research field. Every 12 months or so there is an experimental breakthrough announced that promises batteries with literally order-of-magnitude improvements in every respect. 1000x the capacity. 50x faster charge. 1/10 the weight. Cheaper to manufacture.

And inevitably, manufacturing, scaling, rare earth availability, and other impediments mean they never see the light of day.

That said, it does seem like we should be seeing some improved energy density batteries soon. As in, within the year. Possibly 3000mah in the size of a current 2200 pack.

Slow and steady improvements for the near future.
 
About 10 years ago,out at our flight field, we had some pioneers making up their own battery packs and getting about 10 minutes flight time. We thought that was terrific. Electric flying was usually not appriciated by the nitro pilots and probably only 1 in 50 flew electric.

Now, almost everyone out there has at least one electric craft, and it is rare to see any nitro aircraft. Most of the nitro engines are gone, replaced by gasoline engines.

Just a few short months ago, they came out with a battery that could keep a pretty heavy aircraft in the air for almost 30 minutes, it was called the DJI Phantom Vision 2, easily the longest flight time of just about anything out there.

I have to think that within the next year or two, we will see flight times of an hour or more. Probably more than we want to keep it in the air.

Cheers
 
I read about battery improvememt things every month or 2 months.
And indeed, while breakthroughs are made easily, for some reason it doesn't see the light of the day.
Its stopid...
For some reason i doubt we will see those breakthroughs soon...we already have the current battery technology in our high tech gadgets for a long time now....
And everyone accepted it too...thats why alot people walk around with usb portable battery packs now.
 
There won't be batteries, just a small pack that generates power through fusion reaction that lasts for decades. There are already hydrogen packs developed (packs as in engines) that have successfully flown rc aircraft.

http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/#!copy-o ... tions/ccm4

Cells for rc vehicles... over 200km run on a charge... eeek...
http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/#!advanc ... -kits/c720

https://www.facebook.com/horizonfuelcell

from 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4NSUA-soKs

There are a few others doing dyi cells too.

More efficient solar cells will also be available, allowing for the elimination of batteries, and use super caps instead. More stable, safer and more convenient.

Future is now...
 
My idea on this is to have two batteries.
Either software, or a mechanically timed switch could change batteries every five minutes.
So you wind up with double your normal flight time.
 
Suwaneeguy said:
My idea on this is to have two batteries.
Either software, or a mechanically timed switch could change batteries every five minutes.
So you wind up with double your normal flight time.

Due batteries doesn't = double flight time. It actually gives about 25% more due to the additional weight.
I ran dual batteries in my P1 for ages.
 
rilot said:
Suwaneeguy said:
My idea on this is to have two batteries.
Either software, or a mechanically timed switch could change batteries every five minutes.
So you wind up with double your normal flight time.

Due batteries doesn't = double flight time. It actually gives about 25% more due to the additional weight.
I ran dual batteries in my P1 for ages.

In my experience if you are efficient with how you run dual, you can get ~65% more flight time. But yeah, double isn't going to happen.

And there is no need to switch between batteries mechanically. Just connect them in parallel and you draw half the current from each at the same time.
 

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