Nasa releases animation showing the airflow around drones

We've all seen a drone flying around at some point or another, but seeing what it actually does to the air around it is something else entirely. Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California have used computer models to create an animation of the air flow around a quadcopter drone. They developed the animation for the DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter - a battery-powered drone with four rotors. For years, NASA has used similar computer models to simulate the flow of air around aircraft to improve the performance of the vehicles of the future. The phantom drone relies on four rotors to generate enough thrust to lift it up into the air. The animation revealed the complex movements of the air caused by the interaction of the drones rotors and its X-shaped frame.