I have to finalise the design on this day of all days, fifty years hence from the lunar landing.
I've fought shy of this layout for some time because I could see no easy way of negating the torsion to which it would be prone along the length of those tubes.
Since the outset however (or not long thereafter) it occurred to me that quadcopters could be fixed both top and bottom, not least because the latter provides means of supporting the vehicle at rest.
Experimenting in the lounge today with lengths of dowelling I realise that by using a support around the mid-riff (and I've built many in connection with the 'wearable' drone) the rigidity of the arrangement is improved sufficient for it to be the basis of a prototype.
Let me recapitulate the course of the design effort to date, with the pros and cons:
(a) A form of flying phone-booth ~ too heavy and too complex at this stage.
(b) A hollow drone worn at the mid-riff ~ essentially been done elsewhere.
(c) A ground-level drone to sit or stand on ~ neither new nor original.
At times in the past I dreamt of helicopters with a rotor both below and above the cabin, as it answered two of the challenges associated with conventional rotor-craft viz. retreating blade and a tail-rotor to counteract torque.
At the time the idea was too complex given the state of the art, but with distributed rotor-arrays used by eVTOL technology it is feasible to build an airframe not dissimilar to the one above, which features a set of propellers overhead as well as underfoot.
And I intend to build it.
Next I have to get over to the electrical engineer's farm where ~ beside everything including the kitchen sink ~ there's an ample supply of full-size mannequins.
Shall build the frame around a junior mannequin at the outset, not least because these are the only type with moveable arms that I can fix around a pair of joy-sticks, as if for flight.
