Meant to observe crops, the fixed-wing drone would have a battery life of an hour. That would be a pretty significant upgrade for DJI drones.

“Just add solar panels to the wings” is a popular suggestion for improving the flight times of fixed-wing drones. However, the reality is not so simple, and it’s easy to hurt rather than ...

We've already heard how batteries that are built into the structure of items – such as cars or satellites – could help extend run times without increasing bulk. Now, the flight time of a drone ...

Taking a cue from birds and insects, researchers have come up with a new wing design for small drones that helps them fly more efficiently and makes them more robust to atmospheric turbulence.

Both multicopter and fixed-wing drones use up a lot of battery power when fighting the wind. The Morpho VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) drone addresses this problem with morphing wings that ...

Tiny drones are an attractive solution to a range of communications, spying and search-and-rescue problems, but they are hampered by poor battery life, while solar-powered versions struggle to ...

Avy builds fixed-wing drones; a combination of a drone and an airplane that takes off and lands vertically, transitions to forward flight thus enabling beyond visual line of sight delivery. In the ...

Discover the fascinating process of building a carbon fiber plane, focusing on the construction of a VTOL fixed-wing drone. From the design phase to the assembly of carbon fiber components, every ...

This is, however, one of the strengths of the design. Since it uses a fixed-wing approach it can stay in air much longer than a quadcopter with the same battery capacity. [via Reddit] ...

Most drones on the market are rotary-wing quadcopters, which can conveniently land and take off almost anywhere. The problem is they are less energy-efficient than fixed-wing aircraft, which can ...