Malaysia Flight 370 Could Have Been Found With 3D Printed Drones

British researchers are claiming that an army of 3D printed drones like the one they have created could soon be used for search operations similar to that of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

http://3dprint.com/1740/3d-printed-d...m-researchers/

The drone which was created by researchers at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield, was entirely 3d printed, saving time, and energy. Here is a look at the drone:

http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...-1-300x169.png

In the near future, a army of dozens or even hundreds of these drone could be deployed within 24 hours, scouring the seas for lost aircraft, ships, etc.

I think they are guilding the lily, a drone like that wouldn't have more than one or two hours of autonomy, it could cover at best 200 km in a straight line, it just wouldn't have the range to cover the vast expanses of open ocean needed for a search like the one involving fligth MH370.
At best they could launch and retrieve these planes from a ship and conduct a search in a radius of lets say 50km around, not entirely useless but if you are going to send a ship to deploy drones like that you may just as well send a proper maritime patrol aircraft to do the job in the first place, which would be quicker, and cheaper and, with the benefit of better sensors and more eyes on board, more effective.

Not that there aren't uses for "drones" for Search and Rescue, but this is not one of those, they'd need something with the endurance and payload in the range of a Predator or Global Star UAV, a 1.5 meter wingspan would be a waste of time.
Please don't take me as a basher, I'm actually working on my spare time trying to create a UAV to survey some marine environments so it is not as if I object to the use of "drones" (in quotes 'cause I really don't like the connotations of that word, it being of military origin)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

a drone like that wouldn't have more than one or two hours of autonomy, it could cover at best 200 km in a straight line, it just wouldn't have the range to cover the vast expanses of open ocean needed for a search like the one involving fligth MH370. Not that there aren't uses for "drones" for Search and Rescue, but this is not one of those, they'd need something with the endurance and payload in the range of a Predator or Global Star UAV, a 1.5 meter wingspan would be a waste of time.

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Let's say that mass production of a small drone like this would cost, say $50, and the electric motor, battery, gyro stabilizer, camera and radio transmitter another $150. It might be economically viable to deploy a thousand of these search to cover a wide search area, and just abandon them when the power ran out, instead of sending out many manned aircraft to cover the same area.

Trouble is, you would end up with a sea surface covered with floating plastic. Back to the drawing board ...

Old Man Emu