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What do you get when you cross a plane with a blimp? A Plimp. That's not a joke, it's what the thing is actually called. Manufactured by Seattle-based Egan Airships, the 28-ft (8.5-m) unmanned aircraft has a helium-filled envelope allowing for blimp-like buoyancy, while its winged rigid body allows it to travel quick-ish like a conventional drone.
When the Plimp is taking off and landing – or just hovering on the spot – its two wings rotate so that the electric motors/propellers are facing straight up. This allows it to move vertically. Once it's time to get a move on, however, the wings rotate into a more airplane-like orientation, in which the props are facing forward. In this mode, it can achieve a maximum speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) with at least one hour of flight time depending on payload.
Should the motors conk out, the sub-55-lb (25-kg) Plimp won't just plummet from the sky. Thanks to the buoyancy of its envelope and the lift provided by its wings, it can reportedly glide down at a speed of 9 mph (14 km/h).
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 07 2017, @03:37PM
A max speed of 40mph means that in 40mph gusting conditions, you'll be stopped from flying upwind during the gusts, with an average sustained wind speed of 40mph or higher, this thing is only capable of sailing downstream. That 1 hour of operational time also likely does not apply at 100% full throttle operation. And, a funny thing about wind: it gets stronger/faster as you get up away from the ground.
Still, on a nice calm day, this should be a pretty stable platform to take video from.
🌻🌻 [google.com]