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I've seen several howtos about helicopters. All of these howtos spend most of their time talking about making a wing out of a popsicle stick or something similar. These wings work, but are substandard and involve a tedious process of manufacture. Buzz bomb wings are cheap! Buying them will allow you to spend more time making other devices and inventing new things. This tutorial explains how to use store bought buzz bomb wings. It also contains links to places to purchase the wings.

Supplies:

The body of a helicopter is a simple driver. Make a driver that is a suitable size for your wings (you may need to do some tests) and then proceed. You will also need some hot glue, the wings, some sodium silicate, a drill, and a pair of sharp scissors or a knife.

Manufacture:


			Here is the starting point. These drivers are 3/4" ID, 2 1/8" long, 1/16" wall. They are spiral wound, cheap tubes from pyrocreations.com. You can buy them cheaper at www.pyrotubes.com.

			Here is a picture of the wings from NE Lab Supply. I'll post more links to sources when I find them. These wings are small and won't work for very large tubes.

			Certain wings come with a nipple on the inside area. I find it is easier to cut this off than to drill into the wall of the tube.

			A quick stab with a knife will pop it right off, making it easier to glue to the helicopter.

			If the wings are too small or to big for the OD of your case, simply cut them into three sections, two wings, and the nipple.

			Time to get the driver ready. Drill a hole (I find 5/32" or larger works well) into the casing. You will want the hole to be positioned as close to one end as possible while still drilling into the fuel and not the clay ends. The hole does not need to be tangential.

			Now paste on the wings with the hot glue. The wings should not be parallel to the exhaust, but rather the exhaust hole should be pointed at an angle towards the ground like this: ( \ ). The gas should eject at around 7:30 - 8:00 (5pi/4 - 7pi/6 radians). When the driver is in action, it will spin on the nipple, causing the wings and thrust to force air downwards and pushing the whole thing in the air.

			Next position and place the nipple. The nipple will be placed on the ground and will allow the copter to spin up quicker. If you place the nipple on the wrong side of the driver, the helicopter will fly downwards instead of upwards. The orange arrow points to the exhaust hole.

			Finally, dip the end with the exhaust hole into a sodium silicate solution to prevent erosion of the nozzle. After the sodium silicate dries, you will need to poke a hole with the screwdriver into the fuel in the driver.

Viola! Here are a whole bunch of completed buzz bombs ready for assault. I made this batch with a black powder fuel and 100 mesh titanium, videos in the test shoots section!

Troubleshooting:

"My copter just hops around on the ground" - Sounds like the helicopter is blowing air upwards, forcing it to the ground. Put the nipple on the other side so that air is blown downwards, forcing the device into the air.
"My copter just spins on the ground" - Sounds like your wings aren't big enough for the tube you are using. Is your thrust hole blowing it's exhaust at an angle towards the ground? Try a smaller tube, larger wings, or reposition your exhaust hole.
"My copter spins for a minute and then the wings break off" - Sounds like your wings aren't on straight. If the wings aren't parallel to the ground, they could snag and break off.
"My copter flies into the air and then starts to fall while it is still spinning" - Sounds like nozzle erosion, did you treat with silicate?
"The whole thing blew up!" - Try cooling your mix down by adding charcoal.