Forty-Six Rotors Provide Sufficient Lift For Manned Flight

If this were on a TV show like "Mythbusters" or "What Could Possibly Go Wrong" ... it would come with a the disclaimer "Don't try this at home." But A British man did try it at home ... and has taken the multi-rotor copter concept to the extreme.

YouTube user gasturbine 101, whose first name is apparently Paul based on comments on the YouTube page, has taken 54 electric motors and 18-inch rotors and built an aircraft he can fly.

He dubbed the aircraft "The Swarm."

According to the YouTube video description, the aircraft cost the tinkerer about $9,000 to build, and he says he never intends to fly it more than about head-high.

"54 chosen as this fits the hexagonal close pack layout. 6 more could be added in the center," he writes. "18 in props at 5000 rpm though hazardous, are still much less so than 6, 5 ft ones. Where could you get a low power 5ft prop from weighing less than 1Kg with opposite pitches? The 54 gives good redundancy as mechanical and power electronic systems are the main failure areas. I have had one ESC randomly fail already. Controls could be made fully redundant (9 x KK2.15s) so only the control sticks (and pilot) are single failure points. Redundancy increases the [likelihood] of failure but reduces the consequences."

Just in case one of those props comes off, there is a cockpit canopy protecting his head.

While the aircraft can be seen taking off and landing several times, it apparently is not as maneuverable as the inventor would like. "No one has spotted the biggest flaw! That is the large number of props running at high speed means the net torque reactions are relatively low, so the craft has little yaw authority. So it probably needs a tail rotor for spot turns," he writes.

One commenter recommends that he put floats on the aircraft to make it an amphib. Paul, we salute your ingenuity.

The video has received over 3.5 million views since being posted on August 29th. Go ahead, add another.

(Image from YouTube video)

FMI: Video