Falling Drone Damage Limited Thanks to Autorotation

Did you know that a helicopter can land safely even if its main engine stops in mid-air? It’s called “Autorotation”. The pilot reverses the pitch of the blades as the chopper is dropping like a rock. That causes the blades to spin up like a windmill with 120mph of wind going through it.  At a predetermined altitude, the pilot jams the rotor blades into ‘gain altitude’ mode, and the blades push a mad amount of air downwardly while still turning due to inertia. That’s right – the chopper gets lift without an engine due to the spinning of the blades, allowing the craft to land safely. I met a military pilot whose engine was shot to bits, and he managed to walk away from his bird without a scratch.

This invention uses the same principle: the body of the quad is like a propeller. Should one of the motors fail, a signal malfunction or the battery quit, the quad turns into a propeller, and its imminent impact is softened because it flutters down like a maple tree whirlybird.

Here is the relevant text from the patent application: “The torque generated at the yaw axis of the flying machine may bring about a rotation of the flying machine about the yaw axis, thereby the position of the flying machine being stabilized in space and the crash velocity being reduced. The arrangement of the active lift generating means at the passive lift generating means prevents additional arrangement of elements supporting the active lift generating means. The multiple utilization of a component part, for example the passive lift elements, offers the advantage of saving weight. A lighter flying machine cannot only be lifted into the air and be held in the air with less energy expenditure, but the fall velocity thereof can also be reduced more easily in the case of crash, as it holds less potential energy.”

Title: “FLYING MACHINE”

US Patent Application Publication No: 20150158581

Filed (Germany): December 9, 2013

Published: June 11, 2015