this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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271
China’s ‘land aircraft carrier’ charges flying drone with microwave beam (www.scmp.com)
submitted 1 day ago by FTonsilStones@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Scientists in China have demonstrated a wireless power transmission system that uses a ground-based microwave emitter to beam energy to an antenna array mounted on the aircraft’s underside. Importantly, they were able to do this while both the drone and charging system were in motion.

In tests, the car-mounted system kept fixed-wing drones in the air for up to 3.1 hours at an altitude of 15 metres (49 feet). The key challenge that the team overcame was maintaining alignment between the emitter and the drone during flight, wrote Song Liwei, the project’s leader.

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[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

The difference is likely size and expense.

Now you don't need a 100 million dollar Boeing 737 sized drone to loiter for 3 hours.

Previously small and cheap drones could loiter for 40 mins on an internal battery. Now they can stay up for 3 hours. That can be useful.

Of course these mobile wireless recharging stations will become military targets for the opposition. So the overall combat math isn't obvious to me, but it's not a tech I see as obviously useless.

This could be much more straightforwardly a win for civilian applications.