Mimicking migratory bird V-formations to extend electric drone cargo delivery ranges by up to 25%.
Fixed-wing and tilt-rotor cargo drones shed powerful wingtip vortices. By flying slightly outboard and aft of the leading aircraft, trailing drones enter a region of strong upward air currents (upwash), substantially reducing induced drag and required motor wattage.
Because atmospheric turbulence causes vortex cores to wander, extremum-seeking control algorithms continuously dither formation spacing by centimeters to track the peak power-reduction sweet spot.