r/interestingasfuck • u/Red_Lotus_Alchemist • 2d ago

/r/all A Chinese earthquake rescue team deployed drones to light up the night and aid search and rescue operations after the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

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u/karateninjazombie 2d ago edited 1d ago

It's called a teather drone. The most common idea I've heard bandied about in drone circles is uses in event security.

I like the search and rescue lights idea. They could put thermal cameras somewhere or too for other types of s&r operations too.

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u/Ciff_ 2d ago

It is very heavily used in ukraine rn. You can prevent jamming. They use several hundred meters of cable mainly for control.

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u/oddly-even321 1d ago

The drones currently in Ukraine have cables length of about 10-20 km.

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u/S_J_E 1d ago

Also they're only being used for data transfer, whilst the one in OPs video I assume is just for power

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u/Ciff_ 1d ago

Yeah I think so, they also burn though them fast, flight tile is likely not an issue

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u/GiantManatee 1d ago

Those cables are thin too. You'd need superconductor wire (the holy grail of materials engineering) to power a drone through cable 10 km away.

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u/oddly-even321 1d ago

Those cables are fiber optical, so they can only used for data and no meaningful power even with a short cable.

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u/GiantManatee 1d ago

I'd love to see the kind of laser needed to power a drone over optical cable :D

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u/oddly-even321 1d ago

Big scary laser, protect the remaining eye.

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u/Dude-Hiht875 23h ago

small pulse laser of the Battletech universe