Richen Power fly hybrid hexacopter for over seven hours

Richen Power fly hybrid hexacopter for over seven hours

Hybrid powertrain enables record flight times.

On January 19th, 2018, a hybrid drone named Owling took off at 09:15 AM in Tianjin, China and landed at 16:32 PM. The flight lasted 437 minutes, or 7.3 hours.

Owling was powered by a Richenpower Ltd H2 hybrid system, H2 weights 4 kilograms 8.8 lb, and generates a continuous 1.8 kilowatts or 2.4 hp. H2 has 11 times energy density compared to a 2 kilowatts traditional generator, 7 times compared to a digital generator.

A sped up version of the entire 7-hour flight is here. It didn’t move very far which is impressive in its self.

Owling weighed 44 lbs (20kg) and carried 2.8 gallons (10.5 litres) of fuel.

Gary Mortimer

Founder and Editor of sUAS News | Gary Mortimer has been a commercial balloon pilot for 25 years and also flies full-size helicopters. Prior to that, he made tea and coffee in air traffic control towers across the UK as a member of the Royal Air Force.