Is it feasible for a civilian drone to reach 9000'?

[Willyboy]

there is a video on YT with an electric foam fixed wing at over 30,000ft (alt scale on the right is in meters)

[Smythe]

A megawatt sure sounds like a lot of control.

microwave transmitter/reciever

[compressor stall]

You Tube

Initial launch at 14,000' Later footage along the Khumbu is around 17000'. that's for an out of the box pro 4 bladed job.

Plenty of drones around Everest at times. Youtube has good footage from a Russian drone about level with the summit of Everest - 29000'. Fixed wing though.

[swh]

Originally Posted by 421dog

at the same time, the smart guys in the engineering school broke the world record for R/C airplane altitude by achieving something over 38,000 ft. It was limited by transmitter power only. (Was still climbing 1000 ft/min+ when they lost control authority IIRC)
That was 30 yrs ago with glow plug engines burning nitromethanol lubricated with castor oil. Pretty sure the Uni engineering wonks are WAAY past that now in the era of cheap gps and semi-autonomous control.

Current “home made” drones can easily go beyond 75,000 ft. They are launched by balloon, controlled by autopilot. The autopilots feature return to home, safe flight termination, even aircraft avoidance.

Almost everywhere over land except Africa has Lora wan coverage, outside that coverage global coverage is available with a small Iridium 9603 modem, about 45 mmx45mm. The data plan costs about $10 a month.

RTK enables the drone to have position accuracy under 4cm.

[Dan Winterland]

I had an airprox event with one at 9300ft. Close enough to identify it as a DJI Phantom.