A motor assembly that includes a motor having a motor casing, a rotatable shaft extending from said motor casing to a shaft length and a hub coupled to said rotatable shaft, the hub having a circumferential skid surface disposed immediately proximal to the motor casing and having a channel configured to seat a propeller, when a propeller is present, wherein a bending moment applied to the shaft through the hub results in the circumferential skid surface contacting said motor casing.

An aircraft body and a method of making an aircraft body are provided. In one embodiment, an aircraft body may be molded from a single layer of carbon fiber stock, producing curved sections of single layer molded carbon fiber by molding pliable carbon fiber stock, and heat curing the carbon fiber stock to form a rigid, molded wing section.

An aeronautical vehicle that rights itself from an inverted state to an upright state has a self-righting frame assembly has a protrusion extending upwardly from a central vertical axis. The protrusion provides an initial instability to begin a self-righting process when the aeronautical vehicle is inverted on a surface. A propulsion system, such as rotor driven by a motor can be mounted in a central void of the self-righting frame assembly and oriented to provide a lifting force. A power supply is mounted in the central void of the self-righting frame assembly and operationally connected to the at least one rotor for rotatably powering the rotor. An electronics assembly is also mounted in the central void of the self-righting frame for receiving remote control commands and is communicatively interconnected to the power supply for remotely controlling the aeronautical vehicle to take off, to fly, and to land on a surface.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for operating a multicopter experiencing a failure during flight, the multicopter comprising a body, and at least four effectors attached to the body, each operable to produce both a torque and a thrust force which can cause the multicopter to fly when not experiencing said failure. The method may comprise the step of identifying a failure wherein the failure affects the torque and/or thrust force produced by an effector, and in response to identifying a failure carrying out the following steps, (1) computing an estimate of the orientation of a primary axis of said body with respect to a predefined reference frame, wherein said primary axis is an axis about which said multicopter rotates when flying, (2) computing an estimate of the angular velocity of said multicopter, (3) controlling one or more of said at least four effectors based on said estimate of the orientation of the primary axis of said body with respect to said predefined reference frame and said estimate of the angular velocity of the multicopter. The step of controlling one or more of said at least four effectors may be performed such that (a) said one or more effectors collectively produce a torque along said primary axis and a torque perpendicular to said primary axis, wherein (i) the torque along said primary axis causes said multicopter to rotate about said primary axis, and (ii) the torque perpendicular to said primary axis causes said multicopter to move such that the orientation of said primary axis converges to a target orientation with respect to said predefined reference frame, and (b) such that said one or more effectors individually produce a thrust force along said primary axis.

A motor assembly that includes a motor having a motor casing, a rotatable shaft extending from said motor casing to a shaft length and a hub coupled to said rotatable shaft, the hub having a circumferential skid surface disposed immediately proximal to the motor casing and having a channel configured to seat a propeller, when a propeller is present, wherein a bending moment applied to the shaft through the hub results in the circumferential skid surface contacting said motor casing.

A self-righting flier includes a battery residing at a rounded bottom of a flier body, propellor blades and louvers below the propellor blades. The louvers include rounded projections extending down of bottom most corners. The bottom location of the battery and the louvers provide the self-righting of the flier. The flier further includes a top most guard preventing or reducing damage from ceiling impacts.

A collapsible flying device is provided having a housing including first and second housing sections forming an enclosure, and a motorized assembly that includes a drive motor and a drive shaft driven by the drive motor. The drive shaft matingly receives the first housing section and is coupled to the second housing section, wherein operation of the drive motor drives the drive shaft to move the first housing section from a closed position adjacent the second housing section to an open position spaced from the second housing section. A rotor hub is rotatingly driven by the drive motor. At least two rotor blades are coupled thereto and positioned within the enclosure in a collapsed position when the first housing section is in the closed position, and extend beyond the enclosure in an expanded position when the first housing section is in the open position.

A quick release propeller for model airplanes is disclosed including two or more blades mounted to a hub. For each blade, the hub includes a slot and a shoulder. Each blade includes a base portion having pins which slide into the slot in the hub. The slots are curved which prevents the blades from being removed unless they are rotated at predefined threshold angle with respect to the hub.

A motor assembly that includes a motor having a motor casing, a rotatable shaft extending from said motor casing to a shaft length and a hub coupled to said rotatable shaft, the hub having a circumferential skid surface disposed immediately proximal to the motor casing and having a channel configured to seat a propeller, when a propeller is present, wherein a bending moment applied to the shaft through the hub results in the circumferential skid surface contacting said motor casing.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a volitant vehicle comprising, a body (112), a control unit being configured to compute an estimate of the orientation of a primary axis (130) of said body with respect to a predefined reference frame, wherein said primary axis is an axis about which said vehicle rotates when flying; and at least one propeller (104) attacked to the body, wherein each of said at least one propeller has an axis of rotation (110) which is fixed with respect to said body, is configured to simultaneously produce a thrust force and a torque, said thrust force having a component along the primary axis, said torque having a component along the primary axis constructively contributing to the vehicle rotating about said primary axis, said torque having a component perpendicular to the primary axis, and all of said at least one propeller rotate with the same handedness about their respective thrust forces.