Will full size multi-rotors ever take over manned helicopters?

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Thankfully no-one appears to have been killed or too seriously hurt in the crash above, and FOR THE MOMENT lifts like this are probably beyond most multi-rotor drones (though with at least 4 times the blades, and less energy expended in counteracting rotational forces, multirotor aircraft - whether manned or not - have a massive lifting capacity advantage over real helis) but will that remain the case? Will drones take over manned flights for a lot of things?

This size lift was obviously still way beyond the capability of most drones I've ever heard of, but there are so many places where a drone really is probably a safer option than a full size heli. There's a reason I guess that the military are favouring them so much for so many things.

Even just the fact that drones can do things a real heli often can't because of their size - one of the first videos I ever saw filmed from a drone, flew through the reeds in a river, up to the massive span bridge across the valley the river was in, then tucked in behind a vehicle on the bridge and followed it through the tunnel in the mountain side. All in one smooth unbroken shot.
A real heli would have struggled to run a camera through the reeds, let alone then go up and fly through the tunnel behind a car.

Will drones eventually take over where manned helicopters now go? Or will manned helicopters go to multi-rotor styles, for their greater lifting capacity and easier flight and manoeuvrability?

Is the world of rotor based flight going to majorly re-develop from here and follow the multi-rotor path, or are people always going to want the traditional style and shape of a helicopter?
It's an interesting world ahead one way or another.
 
It would be interesting to know if any of the major heli manufacturers are studying fixed pitch multi rotors.. the problems with fuel driven engines controlling a multirotor are probably too intense to solve.

Best option is to "go electric" and have an onboard generator - but there maybe weight issues. Flying things don't scale very well... either up or down.

I think there is a video of a variable pitch gas powered multirotor on youtube somewhere... sounds like a whirling death machine!
 
There was a guy (in Australia I believe) making small sports-car-sized counter-rotating twin rotor helicopters. He'd solved the issue of slowing down either set of blades with just a simple flap that opened on the tips of the blades, which got rid of masses of levers, pulleys, and other mechanics, and simplified the system so much that the whole thing could be run from an 11kg electric motor, which I remember him saying was going to be even lighter on the next model.

He was talking about 30 minute flight times before batteries became better than they are now, and can only get even better as time goes on.
And with so few moving parts, he believed the maintenance costs would be a fraction of that of normal helicopters.

However, I've not seen any more about it since, so I'm guessing he struck issues somewhere.
They sure were a damned sweet looking craft, and for their size had quite significant lifting capacity because of the light weight engines, lack of complex mechanicals, and the very simple twin rotor system. They were also much simpler to fly, more like the system on a multi-rotor than the system for full size heli's. I'll have to google up whether he's still working on them or not.
 
The whole problem their was the cable why he didn't drop the cable from the bird before he tried to land is beond me ?
When he was coming down you could see the cable getting closer to the props ground crew playing pocket pool or something .
That was pilot error IMO :eek:
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430225091.991691.jpg


Flying RC helicopter used by the military at an airshow trade area. The future?


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Ezookiel, you have a good point. As far as size goes, some don't think so, I do.

But what a stupid, although good, example of why an unmanned aerial vehicle would be a good idea. :confused:

I think I have seen that pilot do dumb things similar to that in the past. I could be wrong.
 
Maybe some ideas in here...

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I finally found the original that I was thinking about that was building a sports-car sized one (back in 2008), for single pilot, and they now apparently have a 5 seater, and they all claim greater lifting capability than a standard tail rotor version.
Can't find reference just yet to their original plan to go with an electric one.
http://www.wielandhelitech.com/ or http://www.coaxhelicopters.com/coax-helicopters

These are only twin rotors, not really big multi rotor the way we'd consider multirotor, but it seems quite a few are starting to do away with the tail rotor.
 

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