RC India

This was a new s article on the Times.

'Privacy is the thing of the past' :banghead:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/black-hornet-nano/

What kind of range will that have ? - I mean op radius not range
of data link .

Probably good only for close quarters - within one km or so - also how high can it go ?
possibly only .1 km or so

Click here for the Times article (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/british-army-unveils-hand-held-drone-black-hornet-used-for-fighting-taliban/articleshow/18334248.cms)

I used to be very happy making a flying models under 10gms. But with three camera, GPS and flight control, live video downlink at just 16 gms!!!!!!.  Un believable.  :hatsoff:

The complete article and coverage is some how silent about the endurance and range.

A normal v911 weighs about 25 gms - even if this weighs
just 15 gms - it will have endurance of about 10 minutes
on a single charge.

This kind of endurance will give it range of just about a km
flying @ 60 kmph = assuming the operator wants it back or
about 2 km if it is sent on a kamikaze type of mission.

Must be powered with some sort of revolutionary battery.

Aren't the afghans known for their hunting falcons ?
One of those could easily bring it down

Or maybe the idea is that these will be carried to the theater
by a mother drone  who will then release a swarm of them each
with independent mission profile

I was wondering about the battery... :headscratch:
Did they found anything lighter than Lithium   :banghead: :banghead:
Someone has mentioned that it has a 30min flight time...

If it has a 30 min flight time, they must have borrowed the idea from 747s with fuel tanks in the wings. In this icase of the micro hornet, since lipo can be smade into any shape, perhaps the body itself is also the battery. 

You don't get it - irrespective of the shape of the lipo
what about the weight ? for it to have a duration
of 30 mins a 15 gm gross heli would have to have
a battery of min 500 mah - this (in current lipo terms)
would mean a battery of about 8 - 10 gms. this will
leave just about 7 - 8 gms for the airframe . motor and sensors.

Unless they are using nanotech - this  is highly unlikely - hence
my assumption that they must be using new battery tech.

Of course all the above is pure speculation

Not only the motor and sensors they also have 3 cameras and gps...  :headscratch: :headscratch:
doubt getting 7-8 min with 500mah lipo.. :giggle:

http://www.rcmania.com/air-hogs-pocket-copter/

The article isn't clear.  Maybe it weighs 15 grams "dry" and maybe it is so light that the plan is to get it up very high let the wind carry and it can be airborne 30 minutes! Or, the article is just propaganda to confuse the enemy.  Either way, no one here will find out (unless you are the guy in the picture) if the specs are true.

The smallest Quad successfully flying with me is 190 gms about 300mm longest end to end with multiwii SE 2.0 and I2C GPS and bluetooth telemetry and 200mw 5.8Ghz video tx which has an endurance of just 9 - 12 mins.

Next on target are these two with Multiwii Nano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCO9mXNhRv0

this one is just 7.7gms of just quad as claimed.

If not the above at least this  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ7Xt2b61Us



but 15 gms ... is unbelievable

So here is the real thing... Its awesome
http://www.crackroll.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3884


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LSQwb4p09wE

If you caught the price tag, each one kit costs over $200,000 or over 10,000,000 INR.  For that much, they sourced a custom chip to be the RX, GPS, video lens, ... so yeah it's possible.

What's not possible is it can handle windy days.

More info about this.  Still says 30 min flights and weighs 16 grams.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112777068/drone-prox-dynamics-pd-100-black-hornet-nano-020413/