[DungeonMaster]

Still, wonder how long this thing can glide at night? Higher altitude means less lift, no?

I tried some searches and it was surprisingly hard to find the information I wanted. Glide slope is the issue when there is no power and you are gradually losing altitude. So you have to aim the plane downward to prevent stalling and lose altitude at a calculated rate. This plane is surely mostly glider and has a very very shallow glide slope all of which has been carefully calculated given an expected altitude as solar energy goes away. I'm not a pilot and I'm sure some Freeper pilot will correct if needed.

[Dustoff45]

Every aircraft has a forward speed that results in a maximum rate of climb. So I expect this enters into their speed calculation at night. However, they also have to make their batteries last until daylight returns, so they probably also pick a night time power setting that offsets both demands.

Just saying they run their motors at a rate that will minimize their sink rate for the time in darkness. Just a guess.

[Alas Babylon!]

Yeah, I suspect they wouldn’t get in it if there is a possibility it would run out of air at night!

Still, at 100,000 feet on a cloudy night and day, how far would they drop?