Chapter 8. Multirotor Aerodynamics
Quadcopters basically have no aerodynamics, so this will be a pretty short chapter, right? Well, it’s true that some of the usual factors, like drag, are insignificant for drones, but drones do have a few unique properties. And the laws of physics apply to all, so at least some of the basics must be the same, starting with this: it takes lift to make something go up.
Lift and Thrust
The most basic equation in flight says that lift, the upward force on the aircraft, must equal weight, the downward force due to gravity. Certainly this still applies to multirotors, but where fixed-wing aircraft use thrust to create forward motion and then use wings to convert this forward motion into lift, we skip all that.
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