I see A-Main has those listed tonight. There are two version - $599 and $799. Very very cool, but not exactly cheap. Probably not cheap to fix either (not that I ever crash). ...Tiger
This appears to be a single motor collective pitch machine. If you look at around 00:16 in the video the guy is rotating one propeller by hand and all the others turn. From the on-board flight portions it looks like the propellers are belt driven. It looks like it flys very well. I see the advantages of collective pitch on multirotors but building in all the helicopters complicated mechanisms does not seem like a good solution.
You're correct about the single motor and belt drive. I agree that the simplicity of what we use now has a lot going for it. What's best just depends on your application and the depth of your pockets. This thing is really cool and just what you need if you have a 3D mentality and the necessary deep pockets. ...Tiger
3D flying is not interesting for me at all, not on helicopter nor multirotor, although some acrobatic capability is a fun from time to time. For me the only attractive aspect of collective pitch on a multirotor would be the potential heavier lift capability that could be gained from using larger helicopter type main blades. I think 10" - 12" diameter collective pitch rotors would be enough.
So if that's all you want, skip the complexity and just use the blades fixed pitch. You could use an adjustable fixed pitch head so you could get exactly what you want. That would be so much easier to implement and cost so much less (especially after the crash). ...Tiger
