Eli5: what are the benefits of a normal helicopter design vs a quadcopter we see on drones?
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With a helicopter, you generally have less moving parts & better stability with mechanical controls. The fact that they require combustion engines doesn’t help. That being said, they’re still very difficult to fly, especially without computer assistance.
With a quad(+/-)copter, you’ll generally have electric motors and computer stability systems to help keep you level in the air. These would be nearly impossible with a combustion engine, unless you had a really efficient drive system and pitch controls on every corner. Even then, you would still need computer controls to help keep things in check. The power to weight ratio in hobby grade toys is ridiculous. You would need a stupid powerful fuel engine and would likely use way more fuel than required on even the thirstiest helicopters. Unless they start building them with generators and electric motors, I don’t see the future for large scale quadcopters.
Even if you got the physics figured out and the power sources for efficient flight, you would still have the noise. The little ones are annoying enough, I couldn’t imagine a huge one flying overhead.
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