The Spinning Drone Paradox

Generally speaking, if your drone starts spinning incredibly fast, you have a serious problem. But here’s the twist: (ba-dum-tsss) with the right design, spinning actually provides a substantial increase in hovering efficiency due to some clever exploitation of the laws of physics. Patreon: FREE print files and parts list to build your own: PART 2: There are plenty of spinning VTOL drones that are inspired by the maple seed. This type of drone has always caught my interest because the complexity of controlling it as it spins always seemed to outweigh whatever benefits it provided, if any. So, I decided it was time to figure out what makes these unique spinning VTOL drones so attractive by building my own that is able to spin with wings, or just fly around like a regular tricopter. As long as you don’t mind your payload spinning, and needing to implement a custom control method (coming soon…?) to intuitively direct it around, a spinning rotor drone is substantially more efficient at hovering than a regular multirotor drone. In the next video, we’ll take it to the next level by exploring fast forward flight with this unique drone design. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it! 00:00 Intro 01:19 Build 02:41 Altitude Hold 03:52 No Wings Power Data 05:49 Wings On Power Data 06:40 Why It’s So Darn Efficient 08:00 Conclusions #VTOL #Drone #Tricopter