Engineers working with the Pentagon’s advanced research arm and a Seattle startup say they are closing in on “infinite flight” for drones by zapping them with high powered lasers from the ground. Recent demonstrations under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program and parallel claims from PowerLight Technologies show optical wireless power transfer moving from lab experiments to real aircraft. One record test delivered 800 W of optical power over kilometers of atmosphere, signaling that a concept first explored in NASA experiments is starting to mature.
The core idea is deceptively simple: instead of landing to refuel or swap batteries, an aircraft carries a special receiver that converts a laser beam into usable electricity in midair. That technique, known as laser power beaming or optical wireless power transfer, has been tested for years in small scale trials and micro drone experiments, and now is being scaled up into systems that promise persistent flight for military Group 2 drones and other unmanned aircraft.
The Science of Laser Power Beaming
At the heart of laser powered flight is the problem of keeping a tight beam locked on a moving target long enough to send meaningful energy. A peer reviewed study in Scientific Reports describes how researchers built a tracking system that can follow a moving object while measuring beam deviation and performance, work that was originally aimed at laser propulsion but maps directly onto power beaming. The authors, identified as Peer and While in the reporting summary, used controlled motion and feedback sensors to characterize how small pointing errors grow as the distance increases, providing experimental data on how precisely a laser has to be steered to keep a receiver illuminated.
Receiver technology is equally important, since even a perfectly aimed beam is useless if the aircraft cannot convert light into electricity efficiently. A peer reviewed paper in the journal Energies analyzes optical wireless power transfer to a micro drone in flight, detailing photovoltaic receiver design, beam spot sizing, and the effect of drone attitude on power capture. That work, again involving Peer and Provides as named in the summaries, reports that small changes in angle between the incoming beam and the panel can produce measurable efficiency losses, a finding echoed by a separate in press analysis of nonuniformity losses on UAV receivers. Together, these studies show that “infinite flight” depends not just on raw laser power but on careful co design of tracking, optics, and airborne hardware.
Historical Foundations and Early Demos
Long before today’s quadcopters, NASA engineers proved that power beaming could keep an aircraft aloft using no onboard fuel at all. Official NASA documentation describes a flight demonstration in which a lightweight aircraft was powered by a ground based infrared laser that illuminated photovoltaic cells on its wings. The agency’s account details how the beam supplied continuous electrical power to the motors, allowing sustained flight as long as the laser remained locked on, and frames the experiment as a proof of concept that energy can be transmitted through the air with enough density to move a real airframe.
That early infrared laser aircraft was closer to a flying test bed than a practical vehicle, which raises questions about how directly its performance scales to modern unmanned systems. The NASA documentation does not claim that the same configuration could immediately support heavier drones or crewed aircraft, and it leaves open how much additional power and tracking sophistication would be needed for operational missions. Still, the demonstration established a technical lineage for today’s work, showing that the physics of laser power beaming are sound even if the engineering challenges for larger platforms remain significant.
Recent Breakthroughs in Drone Applications
The most eye catching recent progress comes from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency effort known as POWER, which set a distance and power record for optical beaming. According to Authoritative government reporting, the program delivered 800 W of optical power to a receiver 8.6 km away for 30 seconds and transferred more than 1 megajoule over the full test campaign. That same report notes earlier records of roughly 230 W at 1 km, underscoring how the POWER team multiplied both range and delivered energy while maintaining a stable link, a key step toward powering aircraft instead of static ground receivers.
A Reputable engineering outlet that examined the DARPA POWER work explains that the record involved a carefully designed receiver tuned to the laser’s wavelength and cooled to maintain efficiency under high flux. The analysis highlights how the optical system had to manage beam quality over 8.6 km of atmosphere, while the receiver converted the incoming light with enough efficiency to make the exercise more than a stunt. Although the test did not involve an actual drone in flight, it demonstrated that kilowatt class power levels can be transmitted over tactically relevant distances, which is the same scale needed for airborne platforms.
PowerLight’s Push for ‘Infinite Flight’
While DARPA focuses on proving what is physically possible, PowerLight Technologies is marketing an end to end system meant to keep real unmanned aircraft in the air. A Company statement describes a ground to air laser power beaming setup for UAS that Contains claims of kilowatt class laser output over kilometer class distances and targets aircraft operating up to 5,000 ft in altitude. The company frames the concept explicitly in terms of “infinite flight,” arguing that as long as a drone can stay within the beam corridor and line of sight, its batteries can be topped up or fully recharged without landing.
An Earlier PowerLight release ties that commercial pitch to a Defense Department backed program called PTROL UAS, which aims to beam power to a Group 2 UAS at 5,000 ft so it can recharge in flight. That same document, which identifies the program name as PTROL UAS and the aircraft category as Group 2, includes a CENTCOM quote describing how persistent unmanned coverage could change operations by allowing a single platform to loiter over an area instead of cycling multiple drones in and out. The CENTCOM perspective anchors the “infinite flight” narrative in concrete military demand for longer endurance rather than in purely speculative technology hype.
How It Enables ‘Infinite Flight’
For smaller drones, the appeal of laser recharging is straightforward: their batteries run out quickly, but they do not need much power to stay airborne. The peer reviewed Energies paper on micro drone charging reports that typical micro drone endurance ranges from 5 to 15 minutes on a single battery, a figure that makes frequent landings unavoidable for surveillance or inspection tasks. By using an optical wireless power transfer link to trickle charge or fully power the rotors while the drone hovers within a beam, the researchers showed that flight time could be extended far beyond the native battery capacity, at least under controlled conditions.
A separate peer reviewed modeling study on UAV operation examines energy harvesting from ground based lasers and explores system optimization for sustained flight. That analysis simulates how a UAV could plan its path and attitude to maximize time within the beam, weighing tradeoffs between altitude, lateral motion, and receiver orientation. The authors conclude that under realistic efficiency assumptions, a properly designed system could in principle maintain near continuous operation, though they stress that this depends on reliable tracking, stable atmospheric conditions, and careful matching of laser output to the aircraft’s power budget.
Challenges and Limitations
Even the most optimistic studies acknowledge that pointing a powerful laser at the sky is not as simple as flipping a switch. The Scientific Reports experiment by Peer and While on beam tracking shows that small deviations in alignment grow over distance, which can quickly reduce the power hitting a drone sized receiver. An in press article on laser wireless power transfer to UAVs goes further, quantifying losses from beam and receiver mismatch and from attitude induced nonuniformity when the aircraft is not perfectly square to the beam. These nonuniformity losses mean that even if the center of the beam is on target, parts of the receiver might be under illuminated, cutting overall efficiency.
Safety and weather add additional layers of uncertainty. The in press study on UAV power transfer notes that high power beams must be managed to avoid hazards to people, other aircraft, and sensors, which implies strict control zones and interlocks around any operational system. The same work and the Energies micro drone experiments touch only lightly on real world atmospheric interference, leaving limited evidence on how fog, dust, rain, or heat shimmer would affect long range links. As a result, claims of “infinite flight” are best understood as conditional on clear air, controlled airspace, and carefully engineered safety protocols rather than as a guarantee in all environments.
Why This Matters for the Future
Despite those caveats, the combination of DARPA records and PowerLight’s PTROL UAS work points toward a future in which some drones rarely need to land. The DARPA POWER demonstration of 800 W at 8.6 km, the Company’s 5,000 ft Group 2 UAS target, and the micro drone charging data from peer reviewed journals together show that optical wireless power transfer can bridge meaningful distances and deliver enough energy to matter. Mainstream coverage that highlights PowerLight’s system as a way to achieve “infinite flight” for drones, such as a Mainstream report on laser based wireless charging, reflects growing public interest in what had long been a niche research topic.
If the technology scales, the implications range from persistent military surveillance to long duration infrastructure inspection and communications relay. A PowerLight UAS that can loiter for hours over a border crossing or disaster zone without landing could reduce the number of aircraft and crews needed for a mission, while a micro drone that recharges midair could map a building site or crop field in a single sortie instead of several short flights. At the same time, the peer reviewed work by Peer, Provides, and other researchers, along with cautious government reporting, makes clear that commercialization timelines remain uncertain and that “infinite flight” will depend on solving hard engineering problems in tracking, safety, and weather resilience before it becomes a routine feature of the skies.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
