5 ms·
A question I've always had is, how is the decision on how many propellers made? Why 16, and not 4? Or why 1?
by supernova87a 6y ago
A question I've always had is, how is the decision on how many propellers made? Why 16, and not 4? Or why 1?
- Animats 6y agoThe drone-type designs cannot autorotate like a helicopter. They don't have the variable-pitch blade controls a helicopter does. If you lose an engine or prop, you crash uncontrollably unless you have some spare props.
- supernova87a 6y agoAh, I see -- so the 4 prop one in the OP article... that is basically a death trap at some point?
- hengheng 6y agoIt's 8 (two stacked along the same axis in each corner), so there will be some kind of redundancy.
- 7952 6y agoI am not sure about this in particular. But in general for redundancy to work you need the remaining equipment to be able to support the craft fully. There needs to be enough spare power. And the remaining thrust must be central enough to avoid loss of control. This doesn't work well with even numbers like 2x or 4x. Also, adding additional rotors/engines could increase the chance of a failure in a particular flight as you have more things that can go wrong. A 2 rotor helicopter is definately not safer than a single bladed one.