High-Speed Unmanned Octo-Rotor Helicopters

The importance of unmanned aircraft is increasing in the last few years. Although unmanned aerial vehicles were used long ago even before WWII, the advance in electric motor technologies and battery chemistries has made possible for a broad range of users to utilize in their projects and activities the unmanned multi-rotor helicopters. Multi-rotor helicopters help in a number of situations, from scientific research to man rescue operations. Their most significant drawback is that they hardly withstand wind and travel at low speeds thus having very limited range. The current paper presents novel development of high-speed unmanned multi-rotor helicopters that solve to great extend these problems by utilizing vertical propulsion propellers in order to achieve high-speed of flight. Two models of the experimental XZ-series are described.