The Wright brothers flew the first manned aircraft over 100 years ago, but people have been fascinated by the idea of flight for thousands of years. Leonardo DaVinci sketched an early design for a helicopter in 1493:
We now have a very good understanding of what it takes to fly. How does an aircraft lift off of the ground? How does it fly once it’s in the air? There is a lot of physics behind those two questions, and it’s not as hard to understand as you might think. This tutorial will take you through the basic physics principles used by multirotor aircraft such as quadcopters and sUAVs to fly and maneuver through the air. Understanding those principles will make you a better operator overall and you can apply this knowledge to other flight systems as well. This tutorial is a basic introduction to the physics, and more information and practice problems are available by following links listed throughout the tutorial.
