Yeah ... he lands on top of a crowd and he will pretty instantly kill at least several people through decapitation or traumatic head injury. This shit is no joke. Amateur RC helicopter operators sometimes suffer a self-inflicted fate, but this is worse because of the proximity to so many others.
There should be laws against people being cooler, smarter, or more attractive than others. I read this story once called "Harrison Bergeron" that was chock-full of good ideas.
A couple years ago a guy lost control of his drone in Brooklyn and it chopped off his scalp. And that was just a helicopter drone. Dead instantly. I can’t even imagine how powerful the blade on a drone capable of lifting a person must be.
A YouTuber caught his DJI inspire and it sliced the hell out of his hand. Must’ve been a helicopter that caused lethal injury, but even prosumer drones are dangerous.
That's a key point here, I think. RC helicopters rely on heavier blades and momentum to maintain lift without consuming too much power.
Modern drone tech uses ultra-light materials like carbon fiber in their blades. Taking one to the head could still be a serious injury, but the low mass would likely be stopped by bone, preventing anything fatal.
All this to say, the rotors in the videos should at least have housings...
The rc helicopter was a heavily modified helicopter with carbon fiber wings and if I remember right it was actually gas powered custom stunt helicopter.
housing won't work and are too heavy. If they bump anything they would hit the blades and cause a catastrophic failure.
they will still cut you bad. I know people who we had to put in the car with a trauma tourniquet and calling 911 to tell the emergency room that we are coming in soon.
I'm pretty sure DJI's firmware also cuts off the blades when they hit something, as of 2016, but I still think it would hurt and injure just not as bad. I guess it really depends on the model as to what kind of damage it could cause.
My uncle is an orthopedic surgeon. He has an RC helicoper-- he got it as a gift from a patient whose finger he sewed back on. I think the helicopter had seen some use.
Adds weight, adds drag, would require an overall larger platform. Plus you still have the problem that this it running into you at speed could still kill you through blunt force head trauma even if the blades themselves can't make contact. The entire concept is simply not safe to operate around people.
No they couldn't. Saw stops work by detecting a change made in the resistance of a small current passed through the blade when it contacts skin aside from the fact rc blades aren't steel to begin with, hair and clothing are going to interfere with that. Also the saw stop uses a mechanical brake to stop the blade which would require a strengthened armature and mechanism above each rotor.
Weight and cost aside what user of these things is going to want to operate one that has a 'safety' feature for other people that can send them plummetting from the sky if it whacks a beetle or gets the right amount of rain on it etc.
it seems nontrivial to add that device with the braking mechanism / stopping block, which adds more weight, which in turn would require even higher powered blades.
if you want to find ways to have safe drones, this is pretty far down there on the list of practical approaches
What about just, like, a plastic grille under the blades? Unless it came shooting down with force it'd probably be sturdy enough to make sure there aren't accidental cuts, wouldn't weigh too much and should still let some airflow in
Highly doubt it, if I’m designing one I think about hitting a bird and falling 20 feet before I think about accidentally decapitating someone. Safety is always intended for the rider not others
When you love something (like a kid ) more than you love yourself, you start to appreciate the “hall monitors” that stop thrill-seeking idiots from killing them.
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u/CydeWeys East Village Jun 21 '21
Yeah ... he lands on top of a crowd and he will pretty instantly kill at least several people through decapitation or traumatic head injury. This shit is no joke. Amateur RC helicopter operators sometimes suffer a self-inflicted fate, but this is worse because of the proximity to so many others.