Build Your Own Quadcopter: Power Up Your Designs with the Parallax Elev-8

CHAPTER 2

Quadcopter Flight Dynamics

Flight Basics

I will begin this chapter with an introduction to basic flight principles that are applicable to any aircraft with wings. It is important for you to have this knowledge in order to understand how a quadcopter flies and the differences between its flight characteristics and those of a normal aircraft.

Figure 2.1, which is from NASA, shows an iconic Wright 1903 Flyer with all four aerodynamic flight forces that simultaneously and continually act upon it. The four forces shown in the figure are further described in Table 2.1.

FIGURE 2.1 Wright 1903 Flyer shown with flight forces. (Courtesy of ...