UAS Aviation Services  Australia

HELICOPTER ADVANTAGES

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HELICOPTER UAV ARE  SIMPLE TO FLY, WHILE OFFERING SUPERIOR RELIABILITY, FLIGHT TIME AND PAYLOAD CAPACITY THAN ANY  MULTICOPTER IN THE SAME CLASS. HELICOPTER UAVS OFFER MORE STABILTY IN POOR WEATHER, ACHIEVING HIGHER CRUISING SPEED, AND HIGHER ASCEND/DESCEND SPEEDS RESULTING IN LONGER FLIGHT TIMES.

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Drones with relative small weight up to 5 kg are usually multicopters. But in larger scale (e.g. 20 kg ) or higher there is no comparison in the efficiency of a single rotor helicopter and a corresponding weight multicopter. The reason for that is that as the rotors are getting larger the efficiency goes up, so you get more lift for less energy. So increased efficiency means more flight time and more payload capacity.

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Scientific Explanation:

Lift is proportional to wing area. Considering that the outer 30% part of a blade – rotor – propeller produces more than 60% of the total lift it is clear that as the propeller gets smaller we will have to use more propellers rotating at much higher RPMs in order to compensate for the reduced wing area and produce the same thrust. The efficiency goes down and energy is being wasted in rotating many small props at high speeds. Also according to the Reynold numbers, the larger a wing – rotor – propeller gets, the more the lift coefficient increases. In other words you get more lift for less energy. So you can fly more with the same payload or have heavier payloads in the same flight time.

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HELICOPTERS VS OTHER TYPE OF DRONES

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FLIGHTS UNDER WINDY CONDITIONS

Helicopters are much more stable in windy conditions compared to multicopters. The reason for that is that the angle of attack of the helicopter blades is constantly changing, adapting to the environmental conditions instantly, compensating any external forces and keeping the ship in a complete balance.

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MORE PAYLOAD

Helicopter drones are capable of carrying heavier payloads and stay in the air for long flying times unlike multirotor drones that can carry light payloads with reduced flight times. This capability combined with fast cruising speeds and hovering ability makes helicopter drones a one-way option for execution of demanding missions such as Search and Rescue.

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HIGHER CRUISING SPEED

As the angle of attack of the helicopter blades is constantly changing helicopters are able to fly with much higher cruising speeds while saving energy in comparison with the multicopters that spend more in order to fly fast. So even if a helicopter and a multicopter have the same flight time with the helicopter you are able to travel much longer distances, cover more area and finish your mission in less time or do more in the same time.

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ACCURATE FLIGHT PLANS

Helicopter drones can do more accurate and efficient flight routes than airplane drones even if flight routes include square, triangle or any polygonal paths. This results in a fast and accurate mission implementation with the minimum energy consumption.

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DESCEND AS FAST AS THEY ASCEND

Another benefit of the helicopters is their ability to descend with the same rate they ascend by varying the pitch of the blades. This is not possible with multicopters as they are using fixed pitch propellers and the only way to descend is to reduce rpms. Doing so you loose stability and you can only descend at very slow rates.