Page 24 - Build Your Own Quadcopter_ Power Up Your Designs with the Parallax Elev-8

Chapter 1: Introduction to Quadcopters 3

Figure 1.3 Gyro Saucer 1 system.

since superseded that early design with later models that are much more sophisticated and
come equipped with a variety of functional capabilities. Figure 1.4 is a picture of their X-8
model, which is quite a remarkable and stable platform.
The X-8 quadcopter has four booms with a motor attached to each one and a pair of
propellers attached to each motor, thus making for a total of eight propellers on the craft.
This quadcopter is just one of dozens of models available for purchase at the time this book
is being written.
Most small-scale, R/C multirotor helicopters have four rotors; however, there are models
with as few as three to as many as eight, with a few outliers with even more. There is also a
start-up company named e-volo that plans to build a manned aircraft with 18 rotors named
the Volocopter.
This book will focus only on building and flying an R/C small-scale quadcopter because
it is the most representative and reasonably priced of the current selection of multirotor
helicopters.

Figure 1.4 Draganflyer X-8.