An American engineer has created a three-bladed drone with propellers in each. A video of the tests was posted on YouTube.

Modern flying drones can be divided into two main types: the “airplane” type and the “helicopter” (multicopter). In the first case, lift is created by the wing and the propeller provides only horizontal speed. In the second option, the entire weight of the device is on the propellers.

Independent engineer Nicholas Rehm has created a new hybrid strain of two types. It has three blades placed at an angle of 120 degrees and each has a propeller. There are three flight modes. The drone takes off like a “helicopter”. After that, the device can begin to rotate around its axis, so the blades will turn into a propeller and begin to create additional lift. Also, the drone can tilt and fly horizontally using the wings in airplane mode.

In order for the drone to fly at the same height in airplane mode, Rem placed a laser range finder in the middle. He practiced and demonstrated control of flight altitude, and also demonstrated that hypothetically the rangefinder could be used for another mission. Since the drone has a rotation mode and a rangefinder, it basically works like a two-dimensional lidar that sends laser beams in different directions and calculates the distance to surrounding objects based on the reflection rate. In the case of the drone, the situation is complicated by the fact that the turn is not exactly parallel to the ground, but the engineer demonstrated that even with slope fluctuations, large objects such as fences can be detected.