RotorLab
RotorLab
RotorLab estimates real multirotor and VTOL performance from physics — hover power and current, endurance, thrust-to-weight, range, top speed, and live limit checks for your ESCs, packs, and power rails. Describe a build and watch every number update as you type.
Runs locally · no external dependencies · self-hosted on your own machine.
Most quick calculators multiply a fixed efficiency constant by weight. RotorLab computes hover power from actuator-disc theory, so prop size, air density, and payload move the numbers the way they do in the air.
Induced power per disc from T1.5 / √(2ρA), summed across rotors and divided by figure of merit. Disc loading and density drive the result, with a coaxial penalty when stacked.
Set a flat-plate drag area and get a full induced-plus-profile-plus-parasite power curve: best-endurance speed, best-range speed, cruise range, and a thrust- or power-limited top speed.
Tailsitter-style craft whose airfoil arms become a wing in cruise. Reports stall and transition speed, wing loading, cruise endurance, and whether the thrust-borne phase can accelerate past stall.
Model packs feeding named buses, parallel packs that add capacity, and dedicated avionics batteries. Every BEC/UBEC rail is checked against its regulator and folded into endurance.
Drop in flight controllers, companion computers, AI accelerators, cameras, thermal, LiDAR, GPS, and radios — each wired onto a rail at the right voltage, with mass and draw fully editable.
Air density from the ISA model at your altitude and real temperature. Hot-and-high is the worst case for any rotorcraft, and the endurance and thrust penalty shows up directly.
Animated power-distribution diagram, mass breakdown, hover-power split, current-vs-limits, and endurance sweeps — exportable as a self-contained HTML report that opens anywhere.
A Math & validation page writes out every governing equation and re-evaluates it independently in your browser, confirming the engine agrees to within 0.1%. Change an input, everything rechecks.
Binds to localhost, blocks DNS-rebinding and cross-site requests, escapes all user text, and uses parameterized SQL — a threat model built for a service on your own machine.
Optional multi-user mode adds accounts, organizations, and roles — super admin, org admin, and standard user — so each engineer keeps their own private build library.
A guided wizard walks every input in logical order, then the live console lets you tune anything and watch the readout recompute.
Airframe and type, props, motors, battery, ESC, payload, and environment — each field has a one-line note on what to enter.
AUW, thrust-to-weight, hover and cruise endurance, top speed, disc loading, and limit checks update as you type.
Enter measured max thrust and hover current, tune figure of merit, and the numbers become specific to your hardware.
Keep builds in a private library, export profiles as JSON, and download a self-contained HTML report to share.
A console on the left, a readout on the right. Stat cards for the headline numbers, an animated diagram showing exactly where the power goes, and a checks block that flags trouble before you cut a single part.
From workshop test stands to FPV, VTOL transition, and field survey — RotorLab models the rotorcraft you actually fly. Swap in your own photography anytime by dropping the named image files into place.
Automate analysis and manage your builds from scripts, notebooks, and apps. Personal API keys, a versioned /api/v1, a daily quota plus purchasable credits, and an OpenAPI spec and Postman collection ready to import.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rl_..." \
-X POST https://your-instance/api/v1/analyze \
-d '{"airframe_type":"Quad X","motor_count":4}'
→ { "out": { "twr": 3.8, "hover_min": 18.6, ... },
"checks": [ ["ok", "ESC within rating"] ] }
Plans are pulled live from your RotorLab instance. Choose one to create your organization account.
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Treat the output as a strong first-order engineering estimate. The physics is exact for momentum-theory hover and the fixed-wing drag polar, and every equation is cross-checked against the engine to within 0.1%. After you enter a measured max thrust and calibrate figure of merit against a real hover, endurance and thrust-to-weight become specific to your hardware.
No. RotorLab is a self-hosted, pure-Python tool with no external runtime dependencies. The web interface runs on localhost, the math runs in your browser, and nothing is sent to the cloud.
Quad X, Quad H, Tricopter, Hexa, Y6 (coaxial), Octo, Octo X8 (coaxial), and VTOL transition. Multirotor types share the momentum-theory core; VTOL transition switches cruise to a wing-borne model for high-speed flight.
Yes. Enable multi-user mode for accounts, organizations, and role-based access. Each standard user owns a private build library, while org and super admins manage users and settings.
You create your organization account, pick a plan, and land in the full RotorLab console: the live calculator, payload catalog, build library, charts, the validation page, and one-click HTML reports.
Stop guessing at grams-per-watt. Describe your next aircraft and see exactly how it will fly.