1 hour endurance with 50kg Payload

Hi,

Is it possible to achieve close to an hour of endurance with 50kg payload on an electric multirotor ? Has anyone seen/build/worked with such a configuration ? If yes then can you comment on the propulsion system used in that vehicle.
I’ve seen lots of hybrid VTOLs that can exceed these numbers but never with multirotors

Thanks

A DJI Matrice 300 will supposedly fly for 55 minutes, but only with zero payload.

I think to do it with a payload you’d either need a very large aircraft with a massive amount of battery capacity, or a hybrid power system to take advantage of the higher energy density of liquid fuels.

Those are 55 DJI-minutes. I think they use a different clock than the rest of us…

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Absolutely, but you are probably going to have at least 100kg of batteries to do it. Putting your take off weight well over 200kg probably.

Of course a 50kg payload of any flight time should be a major engineering effort.

With good engineering and very careful attention to mass and efficiency it is absolutely possible though. Although it may not be worth the cost / effort.

I have built a quad that can do 80+ minutes with a useful payload. There isn’t any reason you can’t scale that up, as a matter of fact, in some ways it is favorable to. But componet availability will probably make it difficult to stay as mass efficient at an arbitrary size.

I dont know your budget but rough estimates for this type of vehicle makes it a around 2-3k$/kg of payload and total weight will probably require a heavy weight class drone permit and license

Supply it from ground, say at 110 or 240 Vac (more voltage thinner wires). Up: rectify and DC/DC supply as needed. It exists for surveillance (not much movement).

I would use hydrogen fuel cells. If you enjoy engineering it is a very promising technology.

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