Control moment gyroscopes for remote control models?

I have a question to all scientific/aircraft oriented members. All my collegues just started to build those quad- or octocopters. As this trend is all about creating a very stable aircraft that can hoover like a helicopter I thought about some other methods to stabilize an airborne platform. To be specific I think about CMGs.
If the ISS and Hubble can manouver with CMGs shouldn't it be possible to use this in an aircraft too? A platform with a single engine providing upwards lift would be very unstable and useless. But shouldn't it be possible to stabilize such a platform using gyros? And even more control the movement of this platform if it's not just a gyro but a control movement gyro?

I searched the net for some private experiments with CMGs in a model or something similar but I can't find anything. Only hundreds of pages with CMGs used in space (like ISS, Hubble..).

Is it just a totaly stupid idea? Anyone with some knowledge about CMGs who can tell me if this would be possible?

i dont know much about this kind of thing, but i thought i read somewhere they were used in some typeof submarine....

Originally posted by UnixFE
I have a question to all scientific/aircraft oriented members. All my collegues just started to build those quad- or octocopters. As this trend is all about creating a very stable aircraft that can hoover like a helicopter I thought about some other methods to stabilize an airborne platform. To be specific I think about CMGs.

Its probably "possible" in a technical sense, but like reaction wheels they do spin up and become "saturated" I believe... and require a rocket thruster every once in a while to let them unwind. All that in a quadcopter is probably unrealistic when (as you state) all the bits needed to build one the ordinary way are already on the flying platform.

On a personal note, I built a quadcopter a few months back, following the instructions in this message forum...
multiwiicopter

Now, together with the other copters I bought on ebay, I now have seven flying machines.

Originally posted by alfa1

Its probably "possible" in a technical sense, but like reaction wheels they do spin up and become "saturated" I believe... and require a rocket thruster every once in a while to let them unwind.

I read about this too in an article about the CMGs in the ISS but they wrote that this is just neccessary after a period of operation. As a model would just fly for a few minutes (

I don't know much about this topic but I remember my teacher for physics told us that gyroscopes were "forbidden" for the public to use (it's one main part of rockets if I remember right)... just my 2 cents

reply to post by UnixFE


The propellers in Gress bicopters are CMGs : www.gressaero.com...

They use OAT (oblique active tilting) to generate gyroscopic control moments - which supplement the thrust vector ones.

I'm actually planning on using an RC controlled CMG on a small two wheeled or (more likely) a two legged platform soon, just to have a project to work on. I plan on dedicating two channels to it, but I suppose you could get by with only one channel if the gyro power supply is manually switch operated.

The hang up I see is the weight of the drive motor, weight of the control motor, weight of the gyro wheel, and required mounting structure. Mine gyro weight alone will be about 2 lbs (not exactly rc aircraft friendly). And that is not to mention an extra battery.

Really cool idea, though, I would like to see someone give it a go.