[TylerE]

What I suspect would kill this for sky diving is recharge time. Even if fuel expenses go to zero, it's not going to be viable if it has to recharge for several hours after every hop.

[jillesvangurp]

What makes you think it's 7 hours? Any off the shelf EV can charge to 80% in under an hour. Some can do it in under 30 minutes.

[hobofan]

Did you read the article? It states 30-40 min recharging after a 30 min flight.

[TylerE]

Which means you now need two airplanes to do what one did previously.

Realistically a skydiving flight would be more, as your climbing at full power much more than a short hop commuter flight normally would.

[ta17711771]

Battery swaps. In the air is next. Especially for city surveillance drones....

[sjburt]

For surveillance drones it's going to be wireless power. Either microwave or laser.

[TylerE]

Or solar, if the threat profile is low.

Could even combo the two approachs...have a large high altitude solar "mothership", that beams directed power at the drones.

[dreamcompiler]

PV is good enough for drones if wing area is large, the aerodynamics are super-efficient, and it's daytime.

[xchaotic]

Or 5G ;)