[1024core]

I've been keeping a casual eye on drones for a few years, and find it surprising that the flight time always stays between 20 and 30 minutes. Despite all the advances in every other department, the flight time has not changed. Why is that? I would have expected drones capable of flying for over an hour by now.

[timerol]

Energy density improvements in lithium batteries (the biggest factor in flight time) have been fairly gradual. There are drones that can fly longer, but they don't use batteries. There are a few drones that use the frame as a hydrogen tank, and can fly for about 4 hours. (https://edgy.app/hydrogen-powered-drone-hycopter-flight-4-ho...)

[jpm_sd]

Both the force of gravity and the energy density of lithium-ion remain more or less unchanged.

[snovv_crash]

Expect that to jump to ~40-50 minutes in the next year or so as some new battery tech comes to market. I've personally seen an endurance-test video of a small quadcopter with almost an hour flight time using prototypes of the new battery tech.