Well, I can confidently say that a well-constructed elliptical helicopter will be superior to a parlor copter. The drag reduction is extremely significant. There is a reason all of the top F1D fliers on the planet use elliptical blade shapes instead of a cross-form. The issue is the amount of time it takes to build a good elliptical rotor. It is extremely time consuming and requires a relatively high amount of construction skill.mrsteven wrote:In terms of rotors, although only one mans opinion, I much prefer NOT having elliptical (egg shaped) rotors. They're much more difficult to build and honestly I don't notice in my experience and watching dozens of people with them, that they help at all.
It seems that more 'experienced' teams try to do it and, with minor successes, they seem to cause havoc amongst them. Often times, I've seen them break and the team was left without a functioning helicopter at our state.
As such, last year I used a tweaked parlor helicopter type design as most people use. I'm very happy with its performance and its beaten every elliptical helicopter in any given competition last season.
Illusionist, in terms of splicing, that generally means cutting in half . . .
So, I would not encourage anyone to try an elliptical blade for their first helicopters, however, if you feel you have maximized your parlor copter design and are looking for a place to gain more time...then you should definitely start looking at drag reduction (of which, elliptical blades are a major component)