For those who think of trolling motors as those inexpensive accessories that push lightweight boats, canoes and kayaks around small lakes, it may have been difficult to understand the fuss when the ...

What blew us away were the thrust figures. Basically, the more grams of thrust, the faster the drone goes—and each gram of thrust added requires a feat of engineering. Using something like a ...

When designing model aircraft of any shape or size, it’s useful to know the performance you can expect from the components chosen. For motors and propellers, this can be difficult. It’s always best to ...

O.G. Schmidt invented the electric trolling motor in 1934 when he attached the starter motor from a Model A Ford to a flexible shaft with a propeller on the end. A fanatical angler, Schmidt used the ...

These days, it’s common among us hackers to load a stepper motor with forces in-line with their shaft–especially when we couple them to leadscrews or worm gears. Unfortunately, steppers aren’t really ...

Long ago, aerodynamicists stumbled upon the concept of net thrust when they were busy designing warbirds like the P51 Mustang. While the definition of net thrust can apply to a lot of things, what I'm ...