Comment by causality0
2 years ago
I don't think you know how infinitesimal the amount of power would be. Assuming a Mavic Mini traveling at its maximum speed of 29 miles per hour, it could cross the continental united states in 99 hours for 36 cents worth of electricity.
~2kwh of electricity is around 160 aH at 12V, surely the Mini is more than 20W power at top speed?
Yeah, it’s easier to use lab test data from Mavic Mini 3 specs: 51 minutes flight time at 21kph [0]. The battery capacity is 28.4Wh [1]. So, 18.4/(21*51/60) = 1.6 Wh/km. Assuming US is 2800 miles (4500 km) wide, we get 7.2 kWh of energy under ideal conditions, without accounting for charging efficiency and the impact of the charging system weight on flight time.
Edit: 21kph is the optimal speed for max flight time but not for the best energy efficiency per km. Most efficient speed is somewhere between that and the top speed. But this is the right order of magnitude at least.
[0] https://mavicpilots.com/threads/mini-3-51-minute-flight-time...
[1] https://forum.dji.com/thread-291222-1-1.html