i've noticed in a lot of the SR4 art that many of the drones appear to be hovering, with no real sign of propulsion (minus the traffic drone pic).

and here i thought that repulsorlift/anti grav tech was still out of reach.

I have no huge problem with artistic liscense, but i still assumed most flying drones were rotor or jet based (especially with that new real world tiny jet engine that was developed), and thus far i haven't come accross any fluff saying "things float!"

so, is this just artistic liscense, or am i missing something?



editing for craziness.

Vectored thrust is possibility - it's been in SR for quite some time. That technology is advanced enough to be used on military and high-grade civilian vehicles so there shouldn't be any problem with using it for drones.

VT, forgot to mention that.

still, that should leave some kind of visible sign, right?

I'd guessing you could have a shrouded set of rotors. Quieter and less likely to accidentally chop things up than open rotors.

write it of as artistic licence

there is also lift fan. if you have played c&c, think the orcas, only that you have a single fan and park the drone on top of it in a way that makes the fan part of the drones body...

for a more visual display:
http://www.moller.com/

let's not forget the LTA possibilities either. there would not necessarily be any visible indication of LTA methods of floating (though obviously, this only works up to a certain point )

definite possibilities. that skycar concept is going directly into my game.