A research team at Putra University in Malaysia, led by Professor Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan, has discovered that pineapple leaves have a strong fiber in them that is perfect for drone construction. They created a bio-composite material from those fibers that they then used to build a drone frame.
Not only is this pineapple leaf-based building material lighter and cheaper than synthetic-based alternatives, it also has a higher strength-to-weight ratio and is biodegradable. The team’s current prototype can fly for 20 minutes between charges and go as high as 3,280 feet (1,000 meters).
