Rotor Egg Drop

Rotor Egg Drop is an event in which teams must build and test a helicopter rotor to safely land an egg on the ground from a variable height.

Rotor Egg Drop is a Division B event in the 2012-2013 season. Previously called Helicopter Egg Drop, the event's name was changed to avoid confusion with Helicopters. Helicopter Egg Drop was run as a Division B trial event for 2012 in New York and at the National Tournament.

The 2012 rules may be found at here.

Overview
In this event, you have a prebuilt helicopter rotor device prior to competition. The event supervisor will provide you with a raw egg. You have one drop during the competition, and that one drop determines your score for the entire event, so be careful!

Building the Helicopter Rotor Device
When building the rotor device, you must keep in mind aerodynamic principles, as you are not allowed to have any energy-producing mechanisms at all. This includes rubber bands.

This means that your design is going to be based solely off of classical physics and how much lift and air resistance you can make with your device.

Also, as your device will be holding a 57 gram egg, you have to test your device with a weight. Anything will do--you can literally take a piece of cloth, bunch it up, and tie rubber bands around it--if it is the same weight as an average egg.

However, you also have to test on a real egg, so you can test if the egg will break or not. That means that things can get really messy if you're not careful. So when you put it in the plastic bag, make sure it's sealed tight.

Remember that in competition, you only have one try, so make it count!