Building a custom drone or optimizing your FPV racing quad? Our free drone calculator helps you determine the perfect motor, propeller, and battery combination before you buy. Calculate thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR), flight time, and hover efficiency in seconds.

Drone Propulsion Architect — v5

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Drone Propulsion Architect

A guided propulsion sizing and engineering review tool. Start simple, then expose the physics when you need it.

Live model

Design workflow

From “will it fly?” to “where are my margins?”

Basic mode uses sensible screening defaults. Pro mode lets you replace those defaults with measured battery, motor and propeller data. The simulation below mirrors the calculated operating point so the numbers have a physical story.

—Max T/W

—Full RPM

—Mission power

—Motor temp

Guided setup — only the decisions most people know

1 Mission

2 Hardware

3 Review

Tell us what you are building

No engineering jargon required.

Quick setup

All-up weight ?Everything the drone carries when it takes off.

Motor count ?How many motors/propellers lift the aircraft.

Choose your battery

We will fill in the basic electrical assumptions for you.

1 click

Choose a motor / prop combination

These are screening presets, not manufacturer data.

Preset

Motor KV ?

Propeller ?

Mission conditions

Small changes here can change required thrust.

Optional

Airspeed0.0 m/s

0 m/s means static hover. Higher values represent the mission flight point.

Ambient temperature25 °C

Used for air density and the motor thermal estimate.

Altitude (m)Higher altitude means lower air density.

Frontal drag area (m²)Keep the default for a simple screening estimate.

Mission & aircraft

Replace defaults with your design values.

AUW (g)

Motors

Airspeed (m/s)

Altitude (m)

Ambient (°C)

CdA (m²)

Battery

Use measured values where possible.

Series (S)

Parallel (P)

Capacity (mAh)

C rating

Cell IR (mΩ)Measure after the pack is at the test SOC if possible.

Full-charge V/cell

Minimum V/cell

Usable energy

Motor / ESC

These values make the operating point defensible.

Winding R (mΩ)

No-load current (A)

ESC efficiency

ESC continuous A

Motor continuous A

Thermal R (°C/W)

Motor max temp

Propeller performance

Use manufacturer or test-stand data for the exact propeller.

Diameter (in)

Pitch (in)

Blade count

Tip Mach limit

J, CT, CP map ?Illustrative screening dataset. Replace with manufacturer/test data before using the result for engineering decisions.

Engineering targets

These change the review thresholds, not the propulsion physics.

Target hover throttle %

Preferred T/W

Motor current reserve ×

Battery current reserve ×

Mission result

Ready for evaluation

Choose your configuration and run the model.

—

Engineering index—

—Maximum thrustTotal at full power

—Maximum T/WThrust / weight

—Mission throttleRequired for selected point

—Estimated enduranceEnergy-based screening estimate

Configure the aircraft to evaluate it.

Aerodynamics

—

Motor / ESC

—

Battery

—

Thermal

—

Calculated operating point

—

—Required thrust

—Battery power

—Motor losses

—Motor temp

—Operating RPM

—Loaded voltage

—Battery current

—Motor current

Maximum T/W—

Mission throttle—

Full-power motor current utilisation—

→

Recommended next step

Validate the exact component data and bench-test the predicted operating point.

Rule findings

What the model wants you to look at

Live propulsion simulationThe animation is driven by the calculated operating point — not a decorative loop.

PHYSICS LINKED

RPM controls pitch • prop torque controls intensity

PROP LOAD—

MODE —

STATUS —

TORQUE —

—T/W

—Throttle

—RPM

—Torque / motor

—Thrust

—Power

—Temp

—Density

What changes visually: RPM changes rotor speed and sound pitch. Torque changes load intensity. Throttle and T/W change how strongly the aircraft holds altitude. A warning makes the aircraft visibly unstable. A hard engineering conflict makes propulsion fail and the aircraft fall. Higher torque is not hard-coded to mean higher RPM; RPM and torque come from the motor–propeller operating point.

Engineering note: this is a calculation aid, not a safety certification. Exact propulsion performance depends on the specific motor, propeller, battery, ESC, controller, installation, temperature, Reynolds/Mach effects and test data. Use manufacturer limits and a calibrated bench test before flight.