Boeing patents drone that can fly forever: a zeppelin.

In other drone news, the US patent office is run by -morons-.

This week the US Patent and Trademark Office approved an application from Boeing's James J. Childress and John J. Viniotis for an autonomous drone that can be recharged without landing.

Today the amount of time a drone can spend in the air is limited by the amount of fuel or electricity the unmanned aircraft can carry.

But those limitations could soon be a thing of the past.

According to the patent, the system involves battery-powered dirigibles or drones that can deploy a retractable tether. The tether will be able to connect to a power source as the craft hovers. When fully charged, the drone will automatically fly off to complete its programmed task while another drone will fly in and take its place at the charging point.

Yeah, patentable? Its a ZEPPELIN, complete with ZEPPELIN docking mast. They built one on the top of the Empire State Building so they could dock airships in downtown NYC. Turned out to be a little too windy for safe docking up there, but this is not new technology.

Next someone will patent the tethered kite/drone.