Levitator 1, new Concept + First Flight. Tip jet helicopter.

Heat shrunk Tesa PP 4024 packing tape covered 6063 welded aluminium frame, PLA printed centre section. Light weight laser cut plywood leading edge wing ribs. TOW 12 kg, flight time ca 25 min. Power consumption in hover with current setup: 900W. 12"x12" propellers. Aerodynamic gearing: around 3.7. 3.3Kg (3x1.1kg) thrust lateral at wingtips at the flight speed 60 rpm (approx.16m/s tip speed) gives around 12kg trust vertically. Flight controller KK2.15HC set up as a + hexacopter. Wings ready to fly weighs 2kg each and the centre body with landing skid around 6kg.
40 -60 degrees pre-set FC-servo signal out to compensate for phase lag/gyroscopic precession.

[@CaseyConnor]

Can someone explain why the trialing edges of the wings are commutated to move like that? If they alter the lift of the wing, and are always doing so on one side of the aircraft, why wouldn't it pitch over to the opposite side?

[@amazingdiyprojects]

There is a flight controller at the heart of the structure telling the servos what to do under a certain part, 1/6, of a revolution. If the craft starts to tilt the control surface will act against that movement under the relevan1/6 part of that turn. The control surfaces can vastly increase ore decrease the lift of the wing it is attached to. If the control surface is in line with the wing lift is :5 if the surface is up lift goes down to : 2 if the surface is down the lift goes up to : 8.

[@bobeyes3284]

@@ahmdabdallah5811 The rest of the world stopped believing in sky fairies a long time ago. There is zero evidence of such a thing. What there is, however, is science. Which has proven all the religions are nothing more than stories.

[@StormBurnX]

If the craft pitches to one direction, it is now flying with a thrust vector that is no longer purely straight up (hovering) and instead is a directional, controlled angle of thrust to move in a specific direction. If the whole craft pitches forward, it flies forward, yes?

[@CaseyConnor]

@@amazingdiyprojects Thanks! So this is an implementation of the functionality of a swash plate? Every time the craft first starts up e.g. 8:01 there seems to be a strong control signal being sent because the control surfaces are moving a lot -- why would they be doing this when the craft is just sitting stable on the ground? is that just because the controller detects a slight tilt and is trying to correct it?

[@carel20081]

@@ahmdabdallah5811 Shut up!!

[@StormBurnX]

Carbon fiber struts in place of aluminum would likely knock the mass down by 20-30% (depending on layout + structure) but building this "with common materials" like packing tape and aluminum pipe is absolutely fascinating, made even moreso by the actual relatively balanced flight performance!

[@jafinch78]

I found the challenge with even like common carbon fiber materials that may be sometimes available in the area seasonally, such as second hand store golf club or never seen ski pole shafts, is having to work around what was/is available specs. I'm not certain what there are for like Goodwill Stores and other thrift shops elsewhere in the World either.

[@StormBurnX]

@@jafinch78 a great point in alignment with the intent of my comment: working with available materials is causing performance issues but even despite this it took off magnificently. Seeing it made with a professional design would be immensely thrilling, as performance would soar - pun intended ;)

[@cayenne7792]

flight is achievable at all powers and weights ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/m56uXqR_l9p9Y80 ) Ya just need the right airfoils and surface area. The lowest hanging fruit to improve this thing would be to use Styrofoam to make proper ribs/ foils and a better shaped wing. He is brute forcing the lift and drag with excessive power..Kudos to His success !

[@RubSomefastOnIt]

my first thought was replacing the steel cables with a paracord or braided fishing line with an applicable test strength would be a lot of weight savings

[@nochan99]

One of the most inspiring and truely innovative technical channels on Y.T.

[@michaelprice3031]

Agree 100%. Love this guy!

[@kayma.]

This Is project of Leonardo

[@amarug]

Your skills and creativity are absolutely insane, and I am an engineer myself. I am a bit curious on how you manage to do these projects in terms of finances and time, it all looks pretty expensive and obviously a lot of work goes into them. I have not seen every single video yet, but I don't recall any of them where you talk about how you came to be able to do these incredible things. This is kind of a torpe by now, but in this case, it really is true and I have never said it myself anywhere before: One of the most underrated channels ever IMO.

[@birdseyeview1543]

What is most amazing is the old KK2 flight controller still exists, and performs well!! Love your amazing projects!!

[@NicholasRehm]

Looks very familiar! Awesome!!

[@Chris_4711]

Funny but actually some what logical to see you here. I just discovered your channel 2 days ago, very interesting, educational and entertaining presented projects you have going on. Same goes for this channel here of cause.

[@DANVELVILL]

Amazing. I tried something very similar a few months ago. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWOxfnp3adiVidU Only mine is smaller, 2 blades, hovers at 200rpm and the controller rotates with the body, so that I don't have a real tail, but a virtual tail (a LED turning on only when it points to a specific direction). The direction control is achieved by accelerating one motor and simultaneously decelerating the oposite one when the body is heading a certain direction marked by the angle of the right hand stick. The farther from the stick center, the stronger is the acceleration/deceleration. However the direction control is very tricky as the tail light is never perfectly steady and after the first input it seems it goes where it wants to go, rather than accurately following my commands....Still work in progress.

[@adastra123]

Well done. You got it to fly !! No mean feat. It's people like you inspire others.

[@imacracker515]

Man I love this. Truly a super unique flying device. This is art. You really out did yourself this time. I hope you keep making more things like this one.

[@rogerdueck9725]

Love how it floats in the air, the grass underneath barely moves when it takes off. Amazing project and everytime I see a new video posted I know I'm in for a treat! Keep it up!

[@amazingdiyprojects]

Yeah, the fact that the grass barley moves under the craft made me giggle as well! Imagine a conventional 11.5kg hexacopter platform fly over high grass, it looks beautiful as well, but boy does the grass get pushed down hard under it!

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

Towards the end look to the right, plants are being blown about.

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

I don't understand why the inner third of the propeller is covered in fabric since this area only creates drag and provides almost no lift at all.

[@CuervoRC]

What a crazy thing, this system of switching the servos with brushes to work with an exactocopter controller seems to me a botch and a stroke of genius at the same time. 😉

[@lancenorthey1282]

curious experiment to see if smaller propellers along the wing would be more efficient as it has been proven on planes... although here the force on the outer tip does make a lot of sense. I've seen simulations where size of propeller and size of engines have enormous effects on performance, meaning there is a sweet spot.

[@joetri1970]

Have you considered blowing the exhaust of a small turbine up the main shaft and out the tips of the rotors for a real tip jet use a rotating tip to direct a small percent of thrust up or down to steer the craft and use the metal frame as ground and you only need 1 control wire to each tip for steering.

[@eckern0]

Super cool! Since you have the gyro stabilized section anyway, have you considered swashplates to control the ailerons?

[@christofbeaupoil8035]

Something like this? kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJy9ZainmZJlqNk

[@James02876]

This is the comment I came looking for

[@Ben-Dixey]

Always something on your channel I have never seen before, incredible to watch.

[@victorhopper6774]

would seem that props on the ends limit the speed of the large props even though they have more leverage. perhaps a bar they could slide inward on would achieve a higher speed of the large props as they gain speed. just a thought

[@robosilo]

There's a 70's sci-fi element to this design. As if it came out of an Arthur C clark novel. Love it!

[@bL1X]

In a helicopter, the flight control input is applied 90° before the reaction of the aircraft. It's normally done with a simple linkage, but your flight computer should be able to handle that.

[@dwk5234]

Innovation and ingenuity at their best! Thank you for sharing with all of us…

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

what a madman. i have no idea what to expect from this guy.

[@mihavuk]

Another aircraft with which he will fly. It will take time, but it will happen. 🙂

[@supergiantbubbles]

I love your outside the box thinking and enthusiasm. This project is really cool and I hope it you get results that are good enough to build a full scale version. I've been mulling over the idea of a manned multirotor that uses large low-speed props, mainly for the reduced noise I would expect from such a setup.

[@BlackPhanth0ms]

This is incredible. Would love to see more of it.

[@kentonian]

Would it be more effienct to have the small props infront of then wings? The sped up horizontal air would then help give more lift instead If just being wasted off to the side

[@TimsBitsnPieces]

Wow, this is soo awesome... id love to see this in a longer and distant flight...

[@olsonspeed]

Very impressive, definitely an "Amazing Project".

[@NZHorizones]

Always so impressive. Joy to watch you work.

[@jaagee6980]

Why don't you put the propellers in the middle of the lift wing section so the outer edge can provide cleaner more lift at lower rotational speed (or more at the same speed) ?

[@nutzeeer]

I recently saw a video of a drone that is a tri blade with tiny rotors at the wingtips, spinning the blade. Uses far less energy than just using tiny rotors. Really efficient! Yours is next level though. Why not use small rotors at the wingtips that turn the large rotors. The small rotors are in turn spun by even smaller propellers. Rotor-ception :D

[@abundantharmony]

Ohhh so that's how it works! I've seen the 3rd video in this series and was wondering. Your projects are totally over-engineered and I love it.

[@machobunny1]

It reminds me of a dragon fly, for some reason. If I saw it flying near me I'd be sure we're being invaded by something...but I wouldn't have a name for it. VERY COOL stuff. Lots of hard, well thought work. Keep going.

[@zenzen9131]

Totally fantastic ! Can't wait to see how this design will progress. A couple of things I would think about would be: 1. Move the aileron servos to the inner edge of the control surface rather than the outer edge to reduce their angular momentum, 2. Experiment with wireless control of the surfaces to obviate the need for the commutator mechanism :) I'm sure thiw will end up looking like a flying saucer and will be totally awesome !

[@rodhawkins5037]

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. A few ideas or food for thought. Have you tried adjusting timing with the gyro and ailerons,it could be lagging a bit,could be off just a few degrees. Also is it possible to move all ailerons up at same rate to kill lift to help with more desirable descend rate. Good luck with this project I'll definitely be watching this progress. 👍👀👍

[@miniphase]

Great design, both technically and aesthetically.... would absolutely love to see more please! How does the packing tape hold up over time? Looks like a good low cost method, especially if it doesn't degrade with UV exposure.

[@twilightsparklegirlytl2796]

Cool stuff my friend,I admire your skills and the way your brain works

[@SuperheroArmorychannel]

Very cool concept! But I’m wondering how you can enter that top shipping container? Even on a ladder it would be difficult to open the doors.

[@heatshield]

that's what all these flying projects are for.

[@pascalfust1035]

You are definitely a brave man. I'd never go for maiden flight in such a small clearance in a wooded area ;-)

[@jafinch78]

Great build and design as always. Neat to see functionality as well without dramatic destroyed system. I found the challenge with even like common carbon fiber materials that may be sometimes available in the area seasonally cost effectively, such as second hand store golf club or never seen ski pole shafts, is having to work around what was/is available specs. I'm not certain what there are for like Goodwill Stores and other thrift shops elsewhere in the World either. $1 ski poles and golf clubs might be unheard of and are usually only at specific stores who have the better pricing.

[@myotherusername9224]

large thrift store chains can't sell everything dfonated so talk to headquarters abth how they dispose of overstock/surplus. that's whre you will find all the deals. also craigslist Free section

[@eelcohoogendoorn8044]

That really cool to see! This type of 'aerodynamic gearing' is a lot more elegant than the high gear ratios youd otherwise need to match electric motor RPM to the RPM of big rotors. Still the noise of the high pitched props though, but hey. Is there any reason itd be hard to set up the servos in a smoother sinusoidal pattern?

[@DanFrederiksen]

Interesting that it works. The blades are just straight, no aero profile, that would presumably improve it a lot. And since most of the lift comes from the ends you could make a cockpit inside a turbine ring of blades. Could be UFOesque

[@maeanderdev]

The commutation is visibly causing abrupt motions on the flight surfaces 3 times per rotation. If you use separate paths without interuptions on the copper surfacem, or an entirely different approach to get servo commands to the servos (such as a rotary transformer), measure relative yaw and do the math in the flight controller, smooth control surface movement should be possible. I really like that low tech solution though. By using carbon instead of copper and analog control voltages instead of pulses smooth commutation might be possible in a low tech fashion too

[@troller3155]

Such a beautiful machine and it’s really mechanical art!

[@jimhood1202]

Beautiful work. Concept and execution. I particularly enjoyed your matter of fact commentary just as the craft reached 60 rpm. It must have been very satisfying to witness your calculations being proven in real time. You controlled your emotions better than I would have.

[@narpat007]

amazing piece of work, hats off to your hard work and money you put in for the making of this project !

[@AtimatikArmy]

Have you seen this video? I really think you will be very interested in it as the vehicle is quite similar to yours: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXurYpKQgLtqqpY

[@amazingdiyprojects]

Yes I have, but thanks for the tip never the less. I would recommend any one else to watch it as well. Im eagerly waiting for the next video of his!

[@pdtech4524]

Very interesting concept. 👍

[@crabby7668]

Interesting project. I came from your part 2 to see how you got round the anti torque problem for the body. Fascinating solution. Is the motor speed derived from the wing rotation speed and do you think it would be easy to scale up? Does still having a " torque link " between body and rotating parts ie not isolated from each other, cause any issues? Would having the propellers in front of the wings give more lift at slow speed or would it be more likely to complicate the control? Best of luck with what is already turning out to be an intriguing project.

[@kentonian]

I just posted about moving the props to in front of the wings before seeing you comment. I think it would give more control authority as well as efficiency

[@841577]

What an awesome design. Can’t believe how slow it rotates and still achieves flight.

[@SVanHutten]

Wow! You have come with such a brilliant concept in order to use the hexacopter controller! Best of lucks with this project! By the way, with some electronic device able to keep orientation (compass, gyro, even a "sun" sensor), you could conmutate the ailerons electronically between the six virtual positions, making the whole thing spin and getting rid of the sliding contacts, the yaw motor and all the bearings but the one for the landing gear.

[@keithbrown2458]

Absolutely amazing I truly love it thank you so much for sharing

[@CarcharothQuijadasdelased]

Its real Triebflügel hours ;)

[@charlespratt8663]

You are indeed a brave man launching it in a wooded area like that. I would have waited for an open field. Truly amazing!

[@zas5892]

You did it man you're flying that's awesome anything that's helicopter related I am so thrilled to see work and man that actually really works well good job man keep going

[@Dongkrak_Buaya]

Great video sir, Impressive

[@ethanzentner9320]

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. I love what you do!

[@n1vca]

Cool concept ... very interesting ... instead of changing the angle of the blade during the turn, like a helicopter does, you do that with some individual small additional ailerons that look proportional more like the mini ailerons used on planes for trimming. I am surprised it was so relatively stable. 👍 Great work!

[@flycatchful]

The rotor head tilts changing the angle of the blades. The blades don't change angle.

[@TheSdheights]

Check out the Curtiss-Bleecker SX-5-1 Helicopter from 1926 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Bleecker_SX-5-1_Helicopter

[@johnthomas4577]

Great Job!

[@garyhenthorne29461]

If the device had two rotor wings spinning opposite the center will remain constant.

[@gousc2622]

Great idea! Like a fireworks pinwheel! Truly inspired, never would have thought of it myself. Balance is a prob though. IMPRESSIVE.

[@pepethefrog7193]

You do really commutate the servos? Cant believe that works. It would be much simpler to do this in a microcontroller. Needs the actual rotation angle and pitch & roll as input and can give you smooth cyclic 3 servo signal out. System servo1 = pitch*sin(angle) + roll*cos(angle). Next servo angle= angle+120 deg. I sure could help with the programming.

[@DivineMisterAdVentures]

Hi! Looks like fun. But haven't you reinvented the heli? As you remember, rocket propelled rotors were tried in the mid to late 1950's. Even designs for "flying saucers" incorporated a fully ducted version of this all-fan notion. The modern 3 and 4 blade drone is an advance on about 50 years of experimentation but lacks the lift of large rotor diameter. You're starting at the end and working backwards.

[@palarious]

Hey, there's another guy who is using a similar setup and using the rotors at the wingtips to rotate and potentially transition into horizontal flight mode. He's on youtube; Nicholas Rehm. Maybe y'all could do a collab?

[@justinmorgan2126]

I fail to see anything new here. If the "new concept" is putting propellers at the end of the wings well, that was tried but with jet engines by both the USA and Russia (and the UK I believe) at least 50 years ago.. it doesn't work well at all. Plus. aren't you going to get enormous drag inefficiencies with the wings being vertical for almost 15% of the length of the wing at the hub? Maybe I'm missing something but it just looks like a giant kids toy.

[@jannejohansson3383]

Okay, this is interesting concept. I see potential 👀 It's good that machine control its movement "fly by wire", I think people cannot trimm everything at fly without crashing it some point. That could be good for aerial picturing or something. But tip motor those spins rotor, idea isn't new, but now it look working so smoothly. Some basket 🧺 for test weight.. This thing have huge amount resources left, what it could do. Weird machine. Flying wing has been use long time, this is Flying propeller but dosent spin out of control whole thing. This wakes ideas in my head too. Microcontroller that manipulate those three motors, could make steering for that copter. There is so many ways to do that.

[@RupertBruce]

I saw the second video first and thought the drive was with the batteries, not at the wing-tip... Where's the counter-rotation? This video shows the props but I now have the idea of a counter-rotating smaller fan in the center....It can be geared to spin more quickly than your fabulous wings, supplementing lift, helping descent as the counter-rotating core has direct control over rotor speed

[@whirving]

Are the aluminum tubes at optimal weight for the strength needed? A cheap way to reduce wall thickness would be a slow acting acid bath. Of course there are problems with that but I expect you don't need the same wall thickness for the whole length of the tube and that having perfect exterior dimensions is crucial? Sorry if you've already considered this crazy idea.

[@TheRattleSnake3145]

For such a slow rotational speed, I would have thought lower pitch props would be better.

[@cdlp8131]

I think that thinner blades (shorter chord wing profile) will produce a more faster rotation rate improving lift and stability.

[@johnhricko8212]

BRILLIANT! Fit it to a "basket", like old hot air balloons. (yes, a bigger one...) 😃👍

[@charleshawkins699]

The problem with large winged aircraft like that. Is that they’re susceptible to losing control in windy conditions. It’s hard to predict wind patterns at higher altitudes. More surface area equals a greater amount of turbulence. The higher the aircraft goes.

[@keithowen5435]

Maybe change wire supports to wire used on Biplanes, less drag. . +++good concept. Enjoy your concept and innovation.

[@maximeg3659]

Why did you choose to have the flight controller on a rotating yaw axis? It could be attached to the structure rigidly, therefore spinning as well, therefore removing the mass of the central motor, right? Of course the MCU would then see the yaw rotation but this can be compensated in software.

[@petercarbin2077]

Micro receiver would probably work Run the battery wire to a separate battery pack just use the signal Wires from the receiver

[@philbarrett3739]

2,3 or 4 of these would be very interesting.

[@michaelnegron8555]

Mk a floor above that o be & now mk one going the opposite direction & u will be on ur way to building a take home flyer Ottis T. Carr gets u to the moon in about 5hrs. I told my son & now I have to mk one. Smh……..

[@EugeneGolovachev]

You can improve this aircraft. Get rid of large propeller, and place three small vertically. Though I recommend use four for better stability.

[@RelianceIndustriesLtd]

Such contraptions should immediately be banned and regulated by the government, you are endangering your own as well as other peoples lives by building and using such an apparatus without any license or any permit from appropriate government agencies. Why cant you spend your spare time like a normal person of society drinking beer and watching sports.

[@theobserver9131]

I wonder what would happen if the propellers were quite a bit larger also, could it be made virtually silent? This is really a graceful and mesmerizing craft!

[@davidkachel]

Show it working, FIRST! THEN, explain it!!

[@eudaenomic]

Excellent! I enjoyed watching the first flight. I think your propeller 2 is heavier than the other 2. But you have an excellent start.

[@theeastman9136]

An elegant and ingenious damselfly, somewhere between Leonardo and Star Wars. Great stuff, thank you.

[@myotherusername9224]

thank you very much for sharing. this is fascinating, important original work. when you talk, please keep the speed of your speech constant and the volume consistent and pronounce all the words as clearly as you can. also you may want to experiment with how close you have the microphone to your mouth. Too close distorts the sound, i have a lot of trouble understanding all of your words. When your volume goes up and down and you speed up your speech and leave out some of the sounds you should make to say a word, I lose the meaning completely.

[@KCSamurai]

the wobble on start up, is showing you that your wings/rotors are out of balance. maybe be some trim tabs, or weights would help. It looks great in hover though, Great work!

[@claudedulieu8942]

Hello Mister See on YT The Djin helicopter with similar technic .... Diference Air inthruth thes pales /Rotor No need rear antigirator

[@propylaeen]

What a great wing design…!

[@pilotescort1]

Old concept already proved futile. Axis is spinning.....fun toy but not practical.

[@petropzqi]

If you really want to pick up some speed you should let us in on your build process and start uploading more videos. This channel could be the next wintergatan or svseeker

[@mcombatti]

🤣🤣🤣 blades are not moving fast enough to create adequate lift. Why fake a video? 🤷‍♂️

[@vmened]

We need plots with comparison of energy efficienty, power consumption, time of flight. Please do that!

[@thomasbarlow4223]

Hello from Florida..... I like this idea. I am really surprised I've never seen such a thing.

[@dreddykrugernew]

A guy has done a video on this design but its a much smaller vehicle and he shows how its possible using this method to fly to save 300% energy output compared to traditional drones, seems there is a sweet spot when the propellers are tilted at a certain angle and the blades spin at a certain speed that do the opposite of what they are supposed to do in terms of physics. You should build four of these and link them together to try and build a super efficient huge drone...

[@RobotoForgoto]

I used to want to make a 3metre wide counter rotating flying thing when i was younger. Now it seems less bonkers. It would have looked like your cool thing! How long can it fly for?

[@amazingdiyprojects]

25min in its current configuration.

[@510Redneck]

Might as well make your base fins so when it catches up with the rest.. it also provides lift...landing the mass while in rotation is going to be a b regardless so might as well as angled fins would be less abrupt of a stop when making contact with the ground.

[@Runescope]

Something that big moving at 1 rotation per second does not seem slow to me. I'd hate to get whacked with something moving that fast!

[@MagnetOnlyMotors]

Maybe you should be in an open field, instead of trees. Less collisional issues .

[@seaeaglebird6959]

This aircraft has a thrust to weight of 1 to 5. Vertical take of aircraft need a thrust greater than there weight to fly. So this aircraft flying must be a optical allusion.

[@BOBXFILES2374a]

Great work! That would make one heck of a Drone!

[@amandadonegan2137]

It reminded me of an ancient giant mosquito...especially with the rhythm!

[@R5555.]

Hey i have an idea why don't you take a hubmotor of an electric motorcycle or an electric scooter and attach the wings to the motor so you don't have all these gears and moving parts that could lead to failure.