Page 23 - Build Your Own Quadcopter_ Power Up Your Designs with the Parallax Elev-8

2 Bu il d Y o ur O w n Q u a d c o p t e r

Figure 1.1 De Bothezat helicopter.

Both the Chinook and Osprey take advantage of computer-assisted flight-control
systems that significantly reduce pilot workload and make it practical to safely fly aircraft
that would otherwise be nearly impossible to fly.
The development of true quad-rotor helicopters turned out to be delayed until the early
1990s when a small-scale, radio-controlled (R/C) system named the Gyro Saucer 1 was
developed and marketed in Japan. This is the earliest instance that I could find in my
research for the appearance of a practical quadcopter, with or without an onboard pilot. It
used mechanical gyros for stability and fairly small electrical motors to turn the props.
Unfortunately, the props were made of Styrofoam and had a habit of disintegrating if they
came in contact with anything, including light fabric curtains. The Gyro Saucer had an
operating flight time of approximately three minutes, was never exported from Japan, and
hence, was a relatively unknown system. Figure 1.3 is a picture of this early quadcopter.
The first modern, widely available multirotor system was the Draganflyer, which was
designed and manufactured in the early 2000s by Draganfly Innovations Inc. Draganfly has

Figure 1.2 V-22 pilot’s station.