>The controller is already responding to changes in balance at an extremely high rate. How do you think these things fly in the first place? You really don't s

>The controller is already responding to changes in balance at an extremely high rate. How do you think these things fly in the first place? You really don't see how there's a huge difference between balancing thrust between relatively equal power sources and losing so much thrust that the aircraft is inherently unstable? Because that's kind of a huge issue - multirotors fundamentally rely on having power at each corner for aerodynamic stability. Even brief loss of power to one is going to put you into a tumbling state with no way to compensate for it. >that's a fairly simple engineering problem which has already been solved by the groups who are using drones commercially (i.e. the military) What multirotor UAS systems does the military have in service for reliable flight over moderate distances? I'd also take issue with the suggestion that controlling an aircraft which has become unstable over an axis that you no longer have control over is "a simple engineering problem." >They're small enough that you could easily have two or more running in tandem and checking eachothers integrity I was referring to the speed controllers that convert the battery power to AC for the brushless motors. I'd expect commercial grade ESCs to be overbuilt, but they put out a good bit of heat that has to be engineered around. They're also one of the more common modes of failure for the brushless motor systems used in mutlirotors. >It just needs an engineer with a little more imagination This is the equivalent to saying "we're going to magic away any problems with this idea." EDIT: I missed this. > If you use EDFs Seriously? Do you even realize how terrible a suggestion that is? EDFs are even worse in terms of energy efficiency and they'd compound stability issues since they have relatively poor throttle response. But I suppose we can imagine those problems away too.