This Bonkers Cyclocopter Flies in a Very Unusual Way
Nicholas Rehm's cyclocopter is the craziest drone you'll see today.
Hobbyists have flown RC helicopters for decades, but quadcopters are now far more popular. A properly-tuned quadcopter is more stable than a helicopter and performs better in most situations. A typical quadcopter, or quadrotor drone, has four props in an X formation, with the flight controller in center of the frame. This works well, but has one downside: the quadcopter has to pitch in the direction of travel. This bonkers cyclocopter, on the other hand, can fly forward without pitching at all.
Manned prototypes date back to 1930, but there has never been a production cyclocopter. The reason we're not all flying around in cyclocopters is because they're mechanically complex and inefficient. But they are quite interesting to see in motion. A cyclocopter generates lift by spinning two or more wheels, which resemble paddle wheels. Instead of paddles, a cyclocopter's wheels contain airfoils. As the wheel spins, the airfoils generate lift. Importantly, the pitch of the airfoils change relative to their current position — otherwise they would produce force in all directions at the same time, cancelling each other out.
Nicholas Rehm crafted his cyclocopter drone from scratch, including the wheels and the gear systems that allow for airfoil pitch adjustments. A upward-facing rotor on the back of the craft keeps the torque of the wheel motors from flipping the drone, in the same way that a helicopter's tail rotor counteracts the main rotor. The electronic components are all standard drone fare: brushless DC motors, a LiPo battery, ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers), and so on. The only exception is the flight controller, which is Rehm's own custom design based on a Teensy 4.0 development board.
This is a strange design with very unconventional aerodynamics, but the video proves that it flies quite well. Even so, it is still inferior to a traditional quadcopter in just about every way. There is one exception: the cyclocopter can move forwards without tilting towards the ground. That could make it useful for cinematography, since a gimbal wouldn't have to compensate for pitch. That's a bit of a stretch, though. Really, we just think it is cool to watch this bonkers contraption as it cruises around like an airborne riverboat.