Exploding 3D Printed Toroidal Rocket Powered Helicopter

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[@attaboyBrad]

This is the most cinematic disassembly I’ve ever seen. If you could have designed it to do exactly this, you should have. Perfection.

[@LimabeanStudios]

This would be very dangerous buuuttt, get a bunch of sections with some decent mass designed to snap off at high speed but have elastic cord running inside so after shattering the pieces kinda fly back into themselves

[@tuloxe]

6:02 just for everybody courious this is the scene 👍

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

A surprising and impressive feature about the last flight is that the wing that stayed intact descended like a winged seed pod.

[@thinkflight]

Agreed, it was not the plan but was the coolest part!

[@FilosophicalPharmer]

Bury it and see if it’ll grow a Prop tree 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@thatguy2201]

​@@thinkflightit flew like a one bladed RC helicopter.

[@DeclanMBrennan]

Like a rocket powered *sycamore seed* There might be the seed of another project there.

[@FilosophicalPharmer]

Theoretically, If a prop tree actually flowered, would the pods or petals grow in such a way as to follow Fibonacci’s sequence? 🤷🏻‍♂️ Curious …! 🤔

[@googleyoutubechannel8554]

"But Toroidal propellers are totally played out on KZbin, how is this going to get views?" Reaches into grab bag of words, pulls out "Rockets"

[@HolbrookAerospace]

It was a pleasure getting to work with Think Flight!!! Now that's how you print, glass, and assemble a toroid propeller and rock-it.

[@stevevernon1978]

that's how you print, glass, assemble, launch, and DESTROY, a toroidal propeller.

[@jimmcdougall9973]

Great project! I would love to see a version 2, where the weak points are addressed etc. The family were sure entertained.

[@altruf]

Inside the propeller blades, it was necessary to stretch a thin steel cable (or steel wire) and pull the entire structure from the inside, that is, to reinforce. Otherwise, inevitably, the composite structure will be torn to pieces, and the glue will not save.

[@adhdaf]

I saw this coming as soon as I noticed the 3D printed layers split the blades laterally instead of longitudinally.. should be an easy fix: just rotate the parts 90°before printing

[@Dave--FkTheDeepstate]

Awesome attempts and learning moments! 13:47 Answer: Hell no. ~1 in 500 WingSuit jumps results in a fatality.

[@oliver.gilbert]

love the teaser of the upcoming videos, base jumping suit is going to be wild

[@Zothaqqua]

Thank you so much for de-hyping toroidal propellers and talking sense about winglets. KZbin's wonderful "algorithm" encourages bait, hype, and sensationalism, and it's very hard to find credible sources. I'm glad you're on that list.

[@bobirving6052]

Yes. I now have a definitive answer on the subject of toroidal props from a humble, yet advanced source. Thanks!

[@stratos2]

Nice work as usual! Also great explanation on where torroidal props may actually have practical application. As it turns out the hype is wrong, but also the people saying they will be useless. Great to know!

[@piconano]

Surprised the fibreglass covering gave up like that! I was sure it would keep it together a lot better.

[@thinkflight]

You and me both!

[@rampagedm]

@@thinkflight what ounce cloth did you use for fiberglassing?

[@simtalkayak]

That one white square flying across the screen in the drone footage was immensely amusing.

[@blacklion79]

There is festival in Thailand where they launch such rotating rickets, and som of them are really huge. Several years ago some videos from such festival went viral.

[@nonsequitor]

Edit: you made a monocopter!!!! ❤ Also: 9:00 first grammatically correct usage of *bigger* on KZbin in 2023. I salute you sir 🎉😉 Also - effortlessly excellent content as usual. Thank you 🙏

[@cjfcreations]

I love how informative your videos are.

[@-Yogo]

13:59 The sound every person makes when asked a question they know the answer to, but don't want to say it out loud ......

[@Everett-xe3eg]

I rather enjoy the noise of things spinning very fast with rockets. Great video

[@olsonspeed]

Your projects are endlessly intriguing and creative, I never know which direction you interests will take us. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

[@cy-one]

As a German, I approve of this modern reincarnation of the Triebflügel. Also, as an owner of an X1C Carbon from Bambu Labs, I agree. It's a useful beast of a printer.

[@kingsleydyson4841]

Congrats on a great project! As a kid I wanted to build a flying rotating gadget with central conical fuel tank and ramjets at the wing tips. The concept was that once spun up, centrifugal force would feed fuel to the engines. This was in the days of control line models before RC. I never built one as I thought it might end up causing a fire. You have stirred up that dream once more. With RC it would be possible to build in adequate controls, so it might not be such a risky project today.

[@thinkflight]

The military tested something like that back in the 50's or 60's, check it out on the Tube. Liquid fueled rocket but same concept, 7 minutes of run time on the rocket engines themselves, could be turned on and off.

[@dododojo905]

Have you heard of the roton single-stage-to-orbit concept? It's basically the same idea. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket

[@TestarossaF110]

This was AMAZING!!!! Please do indeed make this a 4th of July series with smaller toroidal stuff in between it, cuz whooo-boy these are soooo cool!! (I love your cliffhangers soo much, hahaha!)

[@user-ru5jy5lr4g]

How was a propeller coming apart in 1 second "AMAZING"? That was anticlimactic...and you're a muppet.

[@sunfishensunfishen2271]

I knew toroidal props seemed almost like miracle. Thankyou for explaining their actual benefits for me.

[@wedot1]

ok... A little new to this channel (seen a few videos). But this video combined some of my favorite things (maker, "RC"ish aviation, and theory) very well. More please. Keep going!!!

[@FilosophicalPharmer]

Oh, you’re gonna LOVE digging through his previous videos!!! 😂👍🏼 Enjoy!

[@chrismanley5656]

Epic. Really awesome concept and results! The research and theory regarding wing tip vortices is super informative, I hadn’t heard that view before! Thanks again for all your hard work!

[@mattdrat3087]

You have the most interesting projects!

[@CameoLux]

I really hope you do another one of these, it was soo cool

[@gabe2252]

lol I love that it got some height before flying apart! Great work.

[@JohanFasth]

That was an interesting flying thingwingy. Way to go Sir!

[@dronepilot260rc]

This is amazing!

[@xyzero1682]

This is why I love America. You have the freedom to fabricate a rocket propeller, launch it, record it, and publish it here on the internet. Happy Independence day!

[@Rostol]

what a beautiful plane Piaggio made. can't help but admire the sillouette.

[@mrschoko565]

4:57 airliners have winglets also because it’s more efficient, because the more dense air from below wants to come up and fill the space of the air that is less dense on top of the wing end winglets stop the more than fair to coming up

[@landonwiltbank9667]

The single piece of toroid hovering after it all broke apart was awesome.

[@scottcates]

Those are *fantastic!*

[@LiftVector]

Amazing production dude!

[@RickChen]

Great spirit of experimentation, you will surely succeed!

[@harrygreen6935]

This was outstanding and cool to watch. Keep up the great work.

[@nateolmsted22]

That was spectacular 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@aronseptianto8142]

i'm not quite sure what to expect but that propeller looks very well balanced

[@astasna]

You are a genius. Respect!

[@EJ-74]

That was very fun to watch!!!

[@vorg_]

So glad you have the same idea after seeing the single piece still flying. Make a maple leaf seed style rocket.

[@ThePoserProductions]

Great video mister

[@ChadKovac]

Thank you for starting with the money shot. Stayed until the very end out of appreciation.

[@Srfingfreak]

This is tremendous!

[@drakeford3939]

TIMOJEN would be sooo proud of you! Im Proud of you ! Nice Catox2

[@henryknowacki3554]

Bro i love you so much keep on makin the vids

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

That second one maple-seeded pretty good!

[@Obi-Wan_Jkobi]

Started learning CAD to 3d print a non-flight-related invention. A simple one but still challenge for non-engineers (15yr old son/me) to take a whack at engineering this product. Found this channel somehow (b/c our project resembles a UFO? 🤷‍♂️) now I’m fully inspired/stoked. Subbed it 👍

[@3089io]

That british kid made that one blade rocket prop. That was fun. This is pretty great. I like rocket props. I love all the people experimenting with toroidal designs.

[@wideyxyz2271]

Project Air!

[@3089io]

@@wideyxyz2271 Thank you. I frequently get him confused with another fellow. His channel is really great. He documents his journey well and that souped up mini he built with his dad is cool a heck. I should go dig through his early videos and see if he's done a breakdown on that thing.

[@crystalclearwindowcleaning3458]

It's an outstanding concept. I hope you try again.

[@LimabeanStudios]

We are at such an interesting age with diy "flying machines". Technology has allowed people to satisfy so many "what ifs" that we are starting to see so many crazy things on your channel and other related ones. It almost feels like the early days of flight when everybody was trying their wacky ideas. Imagine if da vinci had a 3d printer

[@NicholasRehm]

Looks familiar!! Let’s add a flight controller next time😎

[@thinkflight]

I was thinking the same thing....

[@HolbrookAerospace]

@@thinkflight That does sound fun.

[@austntexan]

Very cool. Your outro was hilarious.

[@bobirving6052]

Thanks for explaining and settling the “toroidal” issue. It’s only useful when space or noise is limited 👍 1ft winglet =0.4ft wing extension.

[@villageblunder4787]

Excellent.

[@brewgardsrg]

Very cool!!!!!!

[@AphexKirlia]

The propeller looks very very very very very cool

[@FarmerFpv]

I could have watched a couple of hours of this thing flying and exploding prematurely. That was wild, lol.

[@zfotoguy71]

This reminds me of the ring type rockets they launch in Thailand. Very cool.

[@thinkflight]

Those were my inspiration, and your comment made me realize I completely forgot to include that part. Missed opportunity!

[@DrRusty5]

In the firework world this is a Girondola, albeit they have effects on them. Perhaps, you are on route to perfecting the design of Girondolas.

[@truegret7778]

[edit] I should have held off to comment until I watched the whole vid.. Titans of CNC has a good vid on mfg the Sharrow prop. and there is a good story It would have been nice to through out a reference to the guy that actually brought toroidal props to the mainstream (and his patent), along with his story and how/why he came up with the toroidal design. He tells the story of him wanting to record (video and audio) an orchestra, indoors, organically with a drone. His drone was too load, so he developed the toroidal prop which was quieter. He also developed the Greg Sharrow Marine propeller which is quieter and apparently more efficient. I say this because of your marine hover-craft adventures.

[@daveshouse8105]

i wonder if you used one blade how that would work? balance with counter weights for launch? idk but that last one seemed to stay up with just one blade and that was actually cool! the whole thing was. theres a yt'r that did something similar but with one blade but wasnt toroidal. im curious!

[@joshuaolsen8844]

Might need a part 2!

[@peraltarockets]

Nice job on that Apogee Aspire!

[@thinkflight]

Someone noticed :)

[@SilvaDreams]

The efficiency increases are in the single digits at best depending on the speed they run at since they have a very limit efficiency range for RPMs and are only really good at reducing noise within that range as well. Also Toroidal propellers have been around since WW2, they are NOT new they are just expensive to produce and not as efficient except at a specific RPM (as I stated before), classic props can produce more thrust and can be adjusted on the fly to achieve better efficiency over a larger range of speeds

[@stevevernon1978]

toroidal propellers are only more efficient at a very limited range of RPM? then using a rocket to power one is PROBABLY not a good test procedure

[@tomassimatovic]

LOVE IT! If captain america had a prop shield...

[@gpaull2]

Love the ending 😂

[@s21aboomar35]

Beautiful ❤

[@SunriseKnight]

So awesome

[@donwright3427]

Sycamore tree spinner. AWESOME

[@Psrj-ad]

Id love to see you work with the Zipline props next!

[@TegraZero]

bring a mini cycle so that it won't waste time to collect trash or objects from the large area. stuffs like electric skate board or scooter gets very handy.

[@kenbad]

Thay was a fun video!!

[@ninehundreddollarluxuryyac5958]

Those were cool. Make some stronger or bigger ones.

[@mankihonda983]

Built regular rocket and jet propellers (like that's a thing) In KSP all the time, they actually worked reasonably well.

[@YvanHarvey]

What if you were to add strings or wire into the foam like what we find in bicycle helmet? This could prevent the full separation of the propeller. Say a strand of fiber glass like we find in fiber optic cable. they are very small and super strong.

[@Kapil-Patel]

his niece said "that was cool though" - definitely winning.

[@calebcourteau]

Great experiment. Looks like it would have been 100% successful if the propellor hadn’t come apart. Please do a round 2.

[@stevevernon1978]

and when you do round 2, learn from the failures of round 1.

[@hell_march6652]

Try some exhaust wrap or some fiberglass materials to wrap around the rocket engine. This should help keep the heat from melting the plastics. This may have also been a point of failure as well. As when the heat started to deforming the plastic it would probably change the angle of thrust on the rocket creating more and/or changing the stress points on the model. Also Maybe develop a recovery system so you can reuse it and mayhap try with a few size smaller rockets working your way up.

[@MaNNeRz91]

That second one was pretty cool with just one wing like a helicopter seed 😂

[@pauls5745]

love to see an asymmetric propeller project!

[@hybrid.roodragon1226]

Can you make it so the rockets are closer to the center? At a certain point the tips where the thrusters go cant go any faster. Have you thought of a 2 stage. Outer rockets to start then inner ones fire to accelerate it?

[@05Rm250RideAlong]

Would love to see the again with stinger wing

[@georgeau2523]

Would it be benificial to use toroidal impellers in ducted fans?

[@wilgarcia1]

although it will require more sanding, printing the airfoil with the leading edge down would grant stronger results due to the direction of the grain =)

[@patrickmckowen2999]

Very interesting 👍

[@feelincrispy7053]

Rctestflight did tests on the toroidal props for a boat and he found very limited efficiency gains. He definitely had room for improvement on his tests/design but it did show its worth being pretty sceptical of big claims without proper large scale field testing

[@wilfredswinkels]

the increased speed of a bambu has a detrimental consequense to layer adhesion. Print it on your Prusa for better layer adhesion (no fanboy but have both printers)

[@gabedarrett1301]

It broke along the layer lines. Try orienting it differently when 3d printing; have the forces act perpendicular to the layer lines, not parallel. Also, can we get a workshop tour?

[@steffwo]

Instead of rocket motors, you could attach three small brushless motors with propellers. Then you could reach indefinite hights.

[@marckart66]

The problem with fast printers is that structural parts still need to be printed slowly. I think you should print these again but with different filament and half the speed. I found this out the hard way with my ratrig vcore printer. It was great printing benchies at 8 to 12 minutes. But when it came to actual parts, I couldn't use that speed. Especially with ABS.

[@1218omaroo]

Very cool. Why not print it with a channel right through the centreline of each blade loop and run a tensioned steel cable through it?

[@chrismofer]

safety third! cool project, maybe if you glassed over top of the print it would be much stronger in the centripetal direction. you could technically load chutes into the tip rocket tubes to bring it down safe.

[@thinkflight]

I did glass the whole thing but apparently not enough.

[@brandonloukota4760]

Someone didn’t watch the whole video before commenting.

[@chrismofer]

@@brandonloukota4760 busted, I wanted to see the fireworks.

[@thatguy2201]

​@@thinkflightRun a safety wire internally along leading edge, from tip to hub. It'll both pull the structure together and stop pieces flying so far when it does crash and break up.

[@stevevernon1978]

@@thatguy2201 "stop pieces flying so far when it does crash and break up" I love your confidence in your own safety suggestion.

[@JasonMitchellofcompsci]

I wonder if print direction would have made it stronger. In theory it shouldn't with the fiberglass covering but those looked like some clean breaks like layer separation. Maybe the fiberglass was able to delaminate from the print. CNC Kitchen did an interesting video on direction specific reinforcement with carbon fiber that could be useful here. That is ditch the sheet. Use actual fibers in the direction you are concerned about.

[@justinpatterson5291]

That software would be absolutely awesome to see going through iterations until the design is optimized.

[@HolbrookAerospace]

That's what is shown. But there are more examples on my channel.

[@lady_draguliana784]

"Rapid, Unscheduled Disassembly" 🤣🥰😜😁💕

[@nellyps3]

The fact that this is 3d printed is crazy

[@stevevernon1978]

its incredible what can fail with 3d printing!

[@dercncplaner]

the layers direction

[@LovesM855A1]

Why not put a thin layer of fiberglass to strengthen it? Carbon fiber wrapped?