Check out the VoloCopter: A helicopter with 18 rotors
Heavily buzzed-about helicopter is attracting a lot of attention for its innovative design
The VoloCopter, developed by inventor and physicist Thomas Senkel, might look like the Hummer of helicopters — that is, a whole lot of extra for no apparent purpose — but make no mistake, there’s a reason for every single rotor on this unique-looking chopper.
The VoloCopter features 18 separate rotors.
This is Senkel’s second crack at the VoloCopter, and the aviation community is abuzz about the updates made to its design, especially as we head to its world premiere at the AirVenture show at the end of the month (details at the conclusion of the article).
Why it’s being heralded as the next big thing in aviation
The VoloCopter can achieve a speed over 54 knots, reach a minimum altitude of 6,500 feet, fly with a take-off weight of 990lbs, and last for more than one hour in the sky.
This past April, Senkel’s concept received the Lindbergh Prize for Innovation by the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation . He was given the award based on the chopper’s simplicity, safety, and efficiency.
Senkel and the team at e-volo, his start-up company, say that production models of the VoloCopter could hit the assembly line in just three years.
The VoloCopter could be ready for manufacturing in three years.
How the VoloCopter works
Last October, Senkel posted a video of himself test-flying the “MultiCopter,” the VoloCopter’s predecessor, which featured only 16 rotors. The video went viral with over 3.5 million views, making Senkel and MultiCopter household names among techies and aviation enthusiasts the world over.
The reason why it was so popular is because it’s such an unorthodox approach to figuring out how we can better design today’s helicopters. You see, a regular, single-rotor chopper puts a lot of stress and torque on the helicopter’s body. As a matter of fact, it needs a tail rotor just to keep it from spinning out. This is extremely inefficient when it comes to energy usage.
The VoloCopter, on the other hand, distributes all of the stress across all of the rotors equally, what with the blades being arranged in two concentric circles. Power comes from a gas engine, but rather than powering the rotors directly, it charges the copter’s electric motors and lithium batteries. The combination of these two features makes the VoloCopter much more energy friendly than today’s helicopters.
Furthermore, the VoloCopter is made of aluminum and each of the blades measures 6 ft long, so the entire thing also weighs much less than many of today’s helicopters (and less than the MultiCopter, too).
When it comes to flying, the VoloCopter takes off and lands vertically, and the pilot has to pay little-to-no attention to the flight path angle, minimum speed, stall, mixture control, pitch adjustment, and more because the propellers work together to generate ascending force, and by means of selective change in rotary speed, they take care of the steering challenges often associated with aflying a regular helicopter, too. Redundant gyroscopes, meanwhile, make it easy for the pilot to keep everything smooth and level.
Due to the chopper’s simple construction and relatively uncomplicated mechanics, there’s also a redundancy of drives. This allows for the safe landing of the VoloCopter, even in cases where some of the drives fail.
What’s next?
For the next two years, Senkel and e-volo will work in collaboration with the LBA (German Federal Aviation Office) and DULV (German Ultralight Aircraft Association) as part of a flight testing program in order to get their very own aeronautical classification as a “VoloCopter”.
During this time, plenty of autonomous flights will be conducted over uninhabited areas to test the reliability of the electronic steering, electric motor, and the copter’s battery management unit.
More immediately, though, the VoloCopter and e-volo team will be at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin from July 23-29. If you’re going to the show or are otherwise in the area, you can find the team over at the Innovation Hanger Alpha where, I’m sure, there will be a crowd. ■
Story via: e-volo.com
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