Tractors on a Plane!

[LSpitz]

Ok, not really but if it gets you to look then good. I had an idea to try on a Dragonfly tricopter. Instead of mounting the two engines on the center spars in the inverted position what if they were mounted horizontally to supply only forward and reverse thrust? They could also be used to rotate the copter around its center axis.

I don't know if this has been tried or not or if it would work but if it did I think it would give you a very fast and responsive craft.

LSpitz

 

[Revere]

There are diminishing returns for what you're planning. the faster you move a rotary wing craft in level flight the more lift you lose on the rearward swing of each prop blade, NASA has worked a lot on this, on their aircraft you will see quite large (though still "stubby") wings which compensate by providing more lift the faster the craft travels. Above a certain point sufficient lift is only provided on one side of the craft - this won't be a problem for a quad and not a huge issue for a tri, though you will be cutting overall lift by 1/2 in those cases and killing the overall handling.

 

[Jugsy]

I think it would work with a bit of fiddling, but I don't think the performance would be as you expect without some major FC wizardry. Maybe altitude and horizon lock on the down thrust motors, and then use the 2 forward facing for throttle and yaw, but I can't see it being a speed demon or very agile.