[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ3rBSUnJnc]

Here’s a quadcopter that I designed and built in response to a CrashCast challenge to build a flyable quadcopter as cheap and as sturdy as possible.

From a construction standpoint multicopters are interesting because (unlike helicopters) they have no moving parts and (unlike airplanes) do not depend on an aerodynamic body to fly. As a result, we see multicopters made from a wide variety of materials and construction techniques.

I had seen photos of a pool noodle unit previously and wanted to try one for myself for a couple of reasons:

Pool noodles are cheap.

It would be a good training unit when friends wanted to try flying. I can’t imagine much you can to do break a pool noodle!

It would be highly visible. My main quadcopter has really thin arms and is hard to see at a distance.

It would be easy to light up for night and evening flying.

I wanted to see how simply a working frame could be built. For example, the motors are simply taped to the frame.

Let’s face it, it’s just funny to think of flying pool noodles!

In keeping with the spirit of a pool noodle quadcopter, I wanted the construction to be as simple as possible (for example, the motors are taped onto the arms). I bodged it together in an evening with materials that were at hand. While originally done as an experiment in minimal design and construction, I was happy enough with the results that I fly it regularly and use it as a trainer when somebody wants to try flying.

If you build something like this, I encourage you to keep to the original spirit of the thing: improvise, have fun, and don’t be afraid to try out new ideas!

This video shows autonomous flight — I took the video myself while hands off on the radio.