Sikorsky Firefly: An Electric Helicopter

It's at nearly gross weight before the pilot steps in and can only fly for 15 minutes, but that's not the point. Sikorsky Innovations sees the Firefly as a testbed for the technologies that may make for a real electric helicopter ... someday.

www.xheli.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5


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42 Responses to “Sikorsky Firefly: An Electric Helicopter”

  1. Try looking for an alternate source of fuel!!! Its hard to believe, With Todays Technology All you can achieve is 15min of fly time.. That is usless and a gross waste of money. I Do not see a demo avaliable either. Come on… Battery Power to Assist in cars an scooters has shown to be more costly than useful. Wishful thinking.. but battery power for flight is a bad choice.

  2. 15 min of flight time…. What a joke!

  3. fly it on video.

  4. machinmanidol2 Says:

    custom is good !!!!! ^^

  5. 15 minutes! That’s enough to take off and enter the landing pattern.

  6. @Pyware50 nuclear power plant making electricity

  7. Blowfeld20k Says:

    @m1aws WTF did you expect …….. your on youtube bro. This is not a forum for informed debate and a rational exchange of ideas.
    THIS IS INTERNET SPARTA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Where 12 year olds come to blow off irritation after being grounded.
    You get the idea.

  8. 1BustedMyth Says:

    As we can now see with RC Model Heli’s real power and resonable flight times are available.

    The unit here is an internal combustion craft that has been modified, that is never ideal, especially for a helicopter where weight is so critical, I estimate that this craft could fly 45min+ now if it was weight reduced. Best of all build it from scratch.

  9. smurfs151154 Says:

    how much is it

  10. again i ask, if your going to show something off, at least demo it. sure your speech is good, but the star of the show is the craft, so start it up, ok?

  11. @Pyware50 Hell of a lot easier to control emissions from a smaller number of point sources then it a distributed source like say all the cars in america. Not to mention that the energy could one day be provide by renewable’s or nuclear energy which is much less emissions intensive. The main problem is energy storage; batteries are the curse of us all.

  12. Electric cars are not green , were does the power come from that charges the batteries most likely a power station burning coal. Same apply’s whit Electric Helicopters.

  13. So many armchair aerospace engineers!

  14. if they would made some of the body out of carbon fiber it would reduce the weight and increase the flying time…

  15. johnnyfarnham Says:

    15 minutes sure beats only being able to fly to the extent of the extension cord lol

  16. Scorpion85629 Says:

    @jetplaneflyer, okay smarty pants explain the theory behind the high bypass fan system. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this system uses the speed of the engine to create the mass of its thrust, does it not?

  17. jetplaneflyer Says:

    @Scorpion85629
    You cant replace a combustion section with an electric drive.. Combustion expands the inlet gas (air) to tens or hundreds of times it’s original volume due to chemical reaction processes involved in combustion, it’s this expansion that creates thrust. There is nothing you can do with an electric drive that would do that. even if you spun a jet turbine at full speed it would make hardly any thrust without combustion to expand the gas.

  18. Scorpion85629 Says:

    @jetplaneflyer, sorry I wasn’t very clear on my comment. Think outside of the box for a minute. What is the max RPM or a typical turbine engine? What would be the thrust if converting a jet fighter engine to full electric. Most of the engines have a forward mounted generator so supplying the needed power for the battery pack should enable non-stop flight, power loss and efficiency shouldn’t be an issue.

  19. nineballaddict Says:

    It’s cute. I hope they build it in Coatesville :-)

  20. jetplaneflyer Says:

    @Scorpion85629,

    Why would you do that?. An electric motor already generates mechanical torque so why not use it directly rather than take huge losses in efficiency and much added weight that would be implicit with all the fans, turbines and gearboxes of a turbo system?

  21. Scorpion85629 Says:

    Okay now put that motor into the combustion section of a turbine engine; removing the combustion section, as I been talking about for too many years; ever since 1991 when I was in junior high. Some motors have higher RPM range than some gas turbines.

  22. tiltrotorcoaxialheli Says:

    now it needs graphene based super capacitors

  23. vineetaquarius Says:

    i want this one , plz

  24. I can design you a electric helicopter for $2,500.00 USD. Includes shipping and repairs. Runs about 450 ‘ at 15 to 30 minutes.

  25. callofdutyfreak39 Says:

    @xhelicopter hey xheli im new to outdoor but great with indoor what do you prefer to me this heli or the 9104 plus i lie to move around alot and go high plz reply thanks

  26. 1killerbilly Says:

    whats the best outside hele on a budget please

  27. hellojoe131 Says:

    mine wont lift off the floor, help please

  28. TheJoelwhite Says:

    @MARVELAG I found mine to be the: The New 3 Channel 9060 Overlord Double Co-Axial Helicopter w/ LED Lights Balance Bar: over 10 mins of battery life and flies great…only 50$!

  29. It´s a good helicopter, but you can´t fly it outdoors unless there´s NO wind

  30. natescraigslist Says:

    i got this for 40$ usd at a hobby store and its the most durable heli its size i have crashed it so hard so many times and gotten it well above 100ft if you get it to max altitude and let offf the throttle to 1/32 throttle you can make it go very fast forward because only one rotor engages at very low throttle all in all a very very good heli for the price and get hours of fun with it batter life id say about 15- 20 mins

  31. CrazyBoy5301 Says:

    who sell heli s032 pm me
    area bahau, malaysia

  32. Hey guys i have owned a couple of mini rc helis and i was looking at something this size and not over $50. What do u think is the best for indoor and outdoor flight (I wouldnt be using it in the wind).Thanks

  33. RobloxTitanicMovie Says:

    how high can it go? and can u somehow mount any camera on this? like a mini lightweight one?

  34. matthewdiscovery1 Says:

    How long does it yake to charge

  35. legoclone90 Says:

    if there a difference between the s031 and s032?

  36. @andronidze Unscrew the plastic cover and disconnect the wire to the blinking light from the main board.

  37. this is a gr8 helicopter 4 people that have just started like me
    easy 2 hand
    4th chanel ( for out side )
    ansd low cost

  38. I have the syno chinook, this one and the s107. All supierior value for money and.a.great place to start flying. The one in this vid is easiest to control but always start off slow because naturally if you crash it, it’ll fuckin break whatbdo you expect? These are awesome! Just stay clear of the s022 until u have learned to piss around with one of these. The s022 is a similar scale to this but its a chinook with 2 powerful motors and ive already fucked one but it was worth buying the other one.

  39. I have the syno chinook, this one and the s107. All supierior value for money and.a.great place to start flying. The one in this vid is easiest to control but always start off slow because naturally if you crash it, it’ll fuckin break whatbdo you expect? These are awesome! Just stay clear of the s022 until u have learned to piss around with one of these. The s022 is a similar scale to this but its a chinook with 2 powerful motors and ive already fucked one but it was worth buying the other one.

  40. rick19831000 Says:

    @andronidze open heli and pull out the lead…

  41. saiplayer2525 Says:

    i have the same model of this. but unfortunately, the stability went wrong after several hit to wall. the blade is fine but when i fly it, it will turn around and round. i already adjust the left or right button, it works.. but (another but)…
    when i try to bring the heli up or down, it seems that it still going round and need to adjust again and again.. what is going on?

  42. Hello, how much weight could this support e.g 50g mini camera?

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