Helicopter with a gyroscopic rotor and rotor propellers to provide vectored thrust

A method for controlling a flying object, comprising the steps of:

• providing a body;
• rotatably mounting a rotor assembly to the body, the rotor assembly having at least two, spaced-apart thrust generators that provide vertical thrust and rotate with the assembly along a path;
• and
• varying the thrust applied by at least one of the thrust generators at selected locations along the path thereby to generate a thrust vector for controlling the flight direction of the object.

A helicopter comprising:

• a rotor assembly including two or more rotor arms, each rotor arm having a propeller for providing vertical thrust;
• a controller for varying the speeds of the propellers at rotor arm positions to control flight direction of the helicopter;
• wherein the rotor assembly includes an electric motor for each rotor arm to drive an associated propeller;
• a helicopter body rotatably coupled to the rotor assembly;
• wherein the rotor assembly includes a rotor commutator electrically coupled to the rotor motors;
• wherein the helicopter body includes a body commutator for transferring speed control signals from the controller to the motors on each rotor arm;
• and
• wherein the body commutator comprises a commutator ring with three or more electrically isolated sectors, each sector corresponding to a selected rotor arm position.