Have you ever needed to recharge your phone but you’re sitting just a little bit too far from a power outlet? The Department of Defense feels your pain, which is why it put $225,000 into researching how to recharge electric aircraft while they are still in flight.
Called “Whisper Beam,” the budding technology would let electric aerial vehicles “draw kilowatts of power in all weather,” wrote the developer, Electric Sky, Inc., in a press release.
Electric Sky CEO Robert Millman cautioned that DARPA’s interest in Whisper Beam is in the early stages, and the exact military applications of the technology, if any, are yet to be determined. Still, if the technology works and if the military finds use for Whisper Beam, it could be a boon for infantry troops or special operations forces.
For example, the military hopes to use small, affordable drones as eyes in the sky to give service members better intelligence on what’s happening around them, and Whisper Beam could potentially keep those drones flying for longer without interruption.
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