Preliminary operational aspects of microwave-powered airship drone

Abstract

This paper reports the development of an experimental airship drone powered by microwave as a precursor toward a large-scale airship drone for cargo transportation in mind under the collaboration with U.S. Federal Highway Administration and universities. Research work on a 2.2-m long airship drone powered by X-band microwave has provided sufficient data for the design and analysis for the operation of airship drone. A block of 16 rectenna array sheets of X-band was placed on each side of the airship drone (total 32 sheets) to collect and convert microwave power into direct current power for running the electrical propulsion system. The demonstration of the airship drone operation, powered only by microwave, was successfully performed inside the High Intensity Radiation Facility chamber located at NASA Langley Research Center. The data show the feasibility of practical use of microwave power for a transportation airship drone.