4 ms·

Eh, drone flight is already pretty inefficient so it might not make much of a difference. Regular RC heli's are much more efficient than quadrocopters, I have

by slackingoff2017 9y ago

Eh, drone flight is already pretty inefficient so it might not make much of a difference. Regular RC heli's are much more efficient than quadrocopters, I have no idea why the quads "won" popularity-wise

ge96 9y ago
I felt the same, like you're flying on thrust not lift... having a background in rc planes (3D flying) usually you need 250watts/lb to hover at half throttle and yeah I always wonder how drones will fly for a long time being a thrust-based flight. If they had fuel cells or something... gas is great with regard to keeping output and decreasing in mass... but batteries same mass, decreasing power... I don't know. edit: I realize thrust/lift arguably the same thing ie. rotating airfoil/wing but purely talking about energy consumption ie. motor off or low power for level flight.
- convolvatron 9y ago
  the forces are the same...but isn't there at least a qualitative difference between a 'lift wing', which creates a force tangential to the flow of air and a 'fan' which shoves air one way and moves in the opposite direction? (obviously I'm not a aeronautical engineer)
  - ge96 9y ago
    I mean, a propeller is two wings mounted on an axis facing opposite directions rotating "infinitely" 360 degrees so... I don't know, I'm not an AE either.
WildGreenLeave 9y ago
Probably because flying a drone is easy while flying a heli is extremely difficult. In the end the biggest part of the people flying drones won't be able to fly a heli.
- andygates 9y ago
  The hardware is also a lot less complicated = cheaper. Fixed-pitch props are just simple plastic parts. Variable-pitch rotors are a whole (delicate) mechanism.
- slackingoff2017 9y ago
  It's only easy to control because of electronic gyros and control. Without those a quad would be more unflyable than a hell. I'm not sure why the automatic control systems haven't made their way to regular helis
  - nomel 9y ago
    They have, even in the mini copters, like the Nano CPX, for $99. This doesn't have the self leveling, but I think that's a much harder problem with a heli at a reasonable angle.

ge96 9y ago

I felt the same, like you're flying on thrust not lift... having a background in rc planes (3D flying) usually you need 250watts/lb to hover at half throttle and yeah I always wonder how drones will fly for a long time being a thrust-based flight. If they had fuel cells or something... gas is great with regard to keeping output and decreasing in mass... but batteries same mass, decreasing power... I don't know. edit: I realize thrust/lift arguably the same thing ie. rotating airfoil/wing but purely talking about energy consumption ie. motor off or low power for level flight.

convolvatron 9y ago
the forces are the same...but isn't there at least a qualitative difference between a 'lift wing', which creates a force tangential to the flow of air and a 'fan' which shoves air one way and moves in the opposite direction? (obviously I'm not a aeronautical engineer)
- ge96 9y ago
  I mean, a propeller is two wings mounted on an axis facing opposite directions rotating "infinitely" 360 degrees so... I don't know, I'm not an AE either.

WildGreenLeave 9y ago

Probably because flying a drone is easy while flying a heli is extremely difficult. In the end the biggest part of the people flying drones won't be able to fly a heli.

andygates 9y ago
The hardware is also a lot less complicated = cheaper. Fixed-pitch props are just simple plastic parts. Variable-pitch rotors are a whole (delicate) mechanism.
slackingoff2017 9y ago
It's only easy to control because of electronic gyros and control. Without those a quad would be more unflyable than a hell. I'm not sure why the automatic control systems haven't made their way to regular helis
- nomel 9y ago
  They have, even in the mini copters, like the Nano CPX, for $99. This doesn't have the self leveling, but I think that's a much harder problem with a heli at a reasonable angle.