CAN A DRONE CARRY A FULL-GROWN HUMAN IN A HAMMOCK?
Wired dives into the science and physics of drones to figure out this age old question. The short answer is yes, with enough rotor area a “drone” can generate enough force. For a standard drone size the power requirements to generate enough lift are too great. Please do not attempt.
Let’s focus on the rotor-based drones, though. Their key to lift is their rotors’ thrust: A rotor’s main job is to take air from above the aircraft and push it down at some speed. Let’s imagine that in some short time interval, the rotor takes a cylinder of air above (that was initially at rest) and gives it some final velocity moving down.
In the end, the total rotor area is very important. For a given drone weight, you could either make a larger rotor (or more rotors) and push the air down at a slow speed, or you could make a small rotor and push the air down at a fast speed.
The air starts from rest above the rotors but then has kinetic energy below. This energy depends on the mass and the velocity of the air.
Theoretically, a drone could lift any amount no matter what size rotor it has. But on a practical level, there are two limitations. First, the maximum air speed is probably around 40 m/s (based on my calculations for the physics of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier). Second, if the drone had a power of something crazy like 1,000 Watts, it wouldn’t be able to fly very long.
I get a rotor radius of 0.188 meters for a total rotor area (6 rotors) of 0.67 m2. Assuming a total drone plus human mass of 70 kg I can first calculate the required thrust speed in order to hover. With these values I get 43 m/s—that seems plausible. Now for the power, I get 14.8 kilowatts (you can see my calculations here. A power of 14.8 kilowatts is sort of crazy high. A normal-sized house could probably get by with less than 3 kilowatts. Just saying.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Pi Day, GitHub 2FA and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
