First-ever Manned Electric ‘Multicopter’ Takes Off

 German aircraft company e-volo has accomplished what it claims is the world’s first manned flight of an electric-powered “multi-copter”.

Multicopter is an electric, vertically starting, human carrying transportation device that employs 16 propellers mounted on a rigid frame, allowing it to take off and land like a helicopter. The propellers create the full lift, and are also responsible for balancing the device on all three axes by independent speed control of the motors. Unlike the rotor of a helicopter, the propellers don’t have any pitch control and therefore no wear.

The automatic attitude and directional control are taken care of by onboard computers which control the engines with the precise rotation speed necessary to fly this tri-axis device. A simple joystick allows the pilot to control the aircraft via a fly-by-wire system. E-volo says the flight of the multicopter is only limited by battery strength.

The flight took place at an airstrip in southwest Germany, and lasted one and a half minutes. Thomas Senkel, a physicist and designer/builder of the multicopter, piloted the aircraft from a center-mounted seat, using a handheld wireless control unit. The flight consisted mainly of maneuvering the multicopter around within a fairly small area – no sense in getting cocky.