Multirotor
rotorcraft with more than two rotors
A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors separated horizontally. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex variable pitch rotors whose pitch varies as the blade rotates for flight stability and control, multirotors often use fixed-pitch blades. They control vehicle motion by varying the relative speed of each rotor to change the thrust and torque produced by each. Some control the pitch of each rotor instead.
Due to their ease of both construction and control, multirotor aircraft are frequently used in radio control aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) projects in which the names tricopter, quadcopter, hexacopter and octocopter are frequently used to refer to 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-rotor rotorcraft, respectively. There is also the X8 (also called octo-quad) configuration that is similar to the quadracopter design, except that it has eight rotors; the lower of which have a reversed rotation direction.
In order to allow more power and stability at reduced weight, coaxial rotors can be employed, in which each arm has two motors, running in opposite directions which cancels out rotational torque (one facing up and one facing down).
Also possible is the addition of horizontal propellers. These types of rotorcraft (which have just 4 vertical propellers) are called quadplanes.
The public source identifies “Multirotor” as rotorcraft with more than two rotors. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Multirotor, rotorcraft and more.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3772377. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Multirotor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.