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A hybrid helicopter with 4 blades? There's a lower limit for weight to fit the ICE (we can't scale an ICE down much), so it might end up pretty close to a small

A hybrid helicopter with 4 blades? There's a lower limit for weight to fit the ICE (we can't scale an ICE down much), so it might end up pretty close to a smallish helicopter

nine_k 3y ago
I remember two-stroke ICEs for model planes that comfortably set on the palm of my hand, not even being a teenager. A can of fuel possibly takes more space than a battery, but likely weighs less anyway. Say, this randomly found guy is pretty tiny: https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/15la-abn-.15-airplane-glow-engine-with-muffler/OSMG0016.html https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/15la-abn-.15-airplane-g...
- tonyarkles 3y ago
  The trick with the tiny little model aircraft engines is that you typically get a decent lift/drag efficiency multiplier with fixed wing vs. quadrotor. In my experience, there seems to be a somewhat scale invariant power requirement of ~200W/kg (applies to a 249g Mavic Mini and much larger 25kg units). For a fixed-wing, you can get a 5:1 or 10:1 L/D and get away with more like 20-40W/kg instead. You also probably don't want to direct-drive a multirotor off of the gas motor but rather convert it to electricity so that you maintain the rapid control authority on the motors. There are companies that make suitable powerplants, e.g. https://www.pegasusaero.ca/hybrid-advantage https://www.pegasusaero.ca/hybrid-advantage