Hasta La Gadget! Page not found

Nov 22

Watch this 18-rotor electric helicopter take its maiden voyage (video)

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if someone made one of Parrot’s AR.Drones big enough to sit in, then heads-up, E-Volo’s Volocopter VC200 is, broadly speaking, just that. The craft, which the company hopes you won’t call a helicopter, packs 18 electrically driven rotors on a circular frame, and has just completed its first test flight in Germany. While it can currently only hover for 20 minutes, there are plans to get it traveling at 54 knots for more than an hour at a time. If you’re curious to see it in action, head on past the break, but just be warned that it’s not quite ready to shorten our commutes just yet.

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Via: Gizmag, FlyingMag

Source: E-Volo

Nov 22

Quadcopters? Please. We’ve Got Octodecacopters Now.

Posted in: Today's Chili

Four small corner-mounted rotors has become the most common configuration for autonomous hovering aircraft these days. But it turns out that if you’re willing to add a few more rotors into the mix—like say 16—suddenly you’ve got yourself an octodecacopter that’s strong enough to carry a couple of human passengers.