He talks about reducing the drag by improving the aerodynamics of various components and got a 17.8% increase in it's RPM with just a leading edge profile and w

He talks about reducing the drag by improving the aerodynamics of various components and got a 17.8% increase in it's RPM with just a leading edge profile and wrapping it in mylar. The big issue in your proposed version is building an arm that is light enough to not absorb a lot of energy (it still needs to be rotating at the same speed as the progressive version in the video) but rigid enough to survive that sudden acceleration. My bet is you'd lose way more to the arm flexing and the added weight than you would the benefit of not dealing with aerodynamic losses.