This drone can fly for a record-breaking four hours on a charge, here’s how

published 28 December 2017

Drones are great fun but they all have a fatal flaw - they need charging after just minutes of flight. Until now, thanks to the Quanternium HYBRiX.20.

The interesting name of the HYBRiX.20 gives away part of its super power, a hybrid fuel system. Rather than using pure battery powered electric drive to fly, this drone also uses petrol fuel. The result is an ability to stay airborne for a whopping four hours at a time. Yup, that’s a new world record for a self-powered multicopter.

The previous Guinness World Record holder was in the air for two hours six minutes and seven seconds. While that’s impressive compared to the usual 20 minutes to half an hour offered by most fun drones, it’s nothing compared to the new record set.

The flight, which saw the drone hovering for the four hours plus, was recorded in a time lapse video where it happened in Spain and you can see that below - if you really need to.

While this is great news for drone fun it really could be good news for those people that use drones for work. Farmers, for example, could have drones out dusting crops and inspecting growth for hours at a time rather than in short bursts that require regular returns to base to recharge.

The Quaternium HYBRiX.20 was the result of funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 research and innovation funding programme. While you can register interest in the drone on the company’s site there has been no mention of a commercial release date or price, yet.

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.