History Main / FutureCopter

* ''{{Starcraft II}}'' The Medivac Dropship and Banshee Anti-Ground

[[folder:Tabletop games]]
* Nurglite blight drones from ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''.

What you need is a futurecopter. These machines come in a variety of sizes, ranging from a one-man unit (with optional handholds on the sides for external passengers), through unmanned autonomous versions (best steer well clear of these) the size of a Hummer, right up to beasts the size of a civil cruiser capable of transporting dozens of fully armed troops complete with an airlifted AwesomePersonnelCarrier or a CoolTank. Heck, you might even see dinky sized models about the size of an RC toy. Size and operation aside, what they almost invariably have is ducted fans (one each side of the fuselage, and usually independently tiltable) for lift and thrust, a V-tail and stubby, vestigial wings with an assortment of guns, missiles and bombs, if there were any wings at all. And, in compliance to the all-powerful RuleOfCool, you can expect the aircraft to be as fast as a jet, as slick as a helicopter and as armed as a bomber. The pilot, if present, is invariably right up front in what looks like a conventional helicopter gunship cockpit.

There are currently no production manned aircraft that look anything like this, for sound aerodynamic and engineering reasons which are unrelated to the RuleOfCool. They are being developed, however, and at the time of writing (April 2010) probably the nearest to production is the Urban Aeronautics Airmule. One might, with some imagination, consider existing tilt-rotor aircraft like the V-22 Osprey to be a very primitive version of this idea, although its rotors/propellers are firmly locked together and very much not ducted, and it has big, conventional wings.

* ''EnemyTerritoryQuakeWars''

You're in an unspecified future, and you need an aircraft capable of short or vertical takeoffs. Helicopters are ''so'' 20th century, and in any case they (probably) can't survive being dropped from orbit, because hey, you might need to be dropped from orbit.

What you need is a futurecopter. These machines come in a variety of sizes, ranging from a one-man unit (with optional handholds on the sides for external passengers), through unmanned autonomous versions (best steer well clear of these) the size of a Hummer, right up to beasts the size of a large bus capable of transporting dozens of fully armed troops complete with ground transport. You might even see dinky sized models about the size of an R/C plane. What they almost invariably have is ducted fans for lifting/thrust (one each side of the fuselage, and usually independently tiltable), a V-tail, and usually either no wings or quite stubby, vestigial wings. Pilot, if present, is invariably right up front in what looks like a conventional helicopter gunship cockpit. Common features are an ability to demonstrate the flight maneuverability of a helicopter, hovering, spinning on the spot, flying sideways etc., potentially space-capable and usually armed to the teeth.

There are currently no production manned aircraft that look anything like this, for sound aerodynamic and engineering reasons which are unrelated to the RuleOfCool. Futurecopters are, it goes without saying, cool. They are being developed, however, and at the time of writing (April 2010) probably the nearest to production is the Urban Aeronautics Airmule. One might, with some imagination, consider existing tilt-rotor aircraft like the V-22 Osprey to be a very primitive version of this idea, although its rotors/propellers are firmly locked together and very much not ducted, and it has big, conventional wings.

* The Orca and its variants from ''CommandAndConquer'' are ducted-rotor [=VTOLs=].

* ''Enemy Territory: Quake Wars''
* ''{{Starcraft2}}'' The Medivac Dropship and Banshee Anti-Ground

* ''{{Starcraft}} 2'' The Medivac Dropship.

* The JSSDF VTOLs from ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' have tilting jet engines.

[[folder:Manga and Anime]]
* The JSSDF VTOLs from ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' have tilting jet engines.
* Vehicles like this are seen in the first episode of ''BubblegumCrisis''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* The copter from ''{{Airwolf}}'' was supposed to be a supersonic stealth futurecopter with beyond-state-of-the-art avionics (even though it looked like a Bell 222).

There are currently no production manned aircraft that look anything like this, for sound aerodynamic and engineering reasons which are unrelated to the RuleOfCool. Futurecopters are, it goes without saying, cool. They are being developed, however, and at the time of writing (April 2010) probably the nearest to production is the Urban Aeronautics Airmule. One might, with some imagination, consider existing tilt-rotor aircraft like the V-22 Osprey to be a very primitive version of this idea, although its rotors are firmly locked together and very much not ducted, and it has big, conventional wings.

[[AC: Western Animation]]
* Global Justice field tilt-fan VTOL craft when they appear in ''KimPossible'', and when Ron briefly becomes a multi-millionaire, he buys an aircraft for Kim that resembles an Osprey with jets instead of rotors.

* ArnoldSchwarzenegger plays a future helicopter pilot in ''TheSixthDay''. Naturally, the copters he flies are FutureCopters, with the ability to switch to a high speed jet mode and be flown remotely using a Power Glove-like arrangement.

* The copter from ''AirWolf'' was supposed to be a supersonic stealth futurecopter with beyond-state-of-the-art avionics (even though it looked like a Bell 222).

* The Orca and its variants from ''CommandAndConquer'' are ducted-rotor VTOLs.

* In the movie ''Avatar'', the human forces have helicopter sized ducted-fan gunships.
* In the movie ''Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'' there are small, autonomous Hunter-Killer terminator prototypes which pursue the heroes.
* In the movies ''Terminator'' and ''Terminator 2'', the full-size, autonomous H-Ks follow the same design. (The first movie may be the design's first appearance in any media).
* In ''Aliens'', the Colonial Marines' dropship is a fully spaceworthy version of the design.
** But the rotors on a Hornet aren't attached to wings. And the Pelican dropship and the Aliens Colonial Marine dropship don't have tiltrotors at all, but I think they're still in the family of this design. The critical features are VTOL flight envelope, V tail (probably), gunship-canopy pilot position... and not much else. Fundamentally they serve the ''narrative function''of a helicopter, which is why I suggested Futurecopter.

* ArnoldSchwarzenegger plays a helicopter pilot in the science fiction film ''TheSixthDay''. Naturally the copters he flies are FutureCopters, with the ability to switch to a high speed jet mode and be flown remotely using a power glove like arrangement.

[[folder:Live action TV]]

* In the video game ''Halo 3'' there a one-man aircraft called Hornets, which have external handles allowing other players to hitch a ride.
** [[http://halo.bungie.org/bwu/images/hornet.jpg Here's]] an image of the Hornet from Halo 3, for those of you who lack the bandwidth or courage to view the above thread.
** The Pelican dropship is a pretty close cousin of the dropship from Aliens, and is similarly orbital-drop capable.

* One of the trailers for the ''BeyondGoodAndEvil'' sequel

!Examples

* ''{{Starcraft}} 2''

[[folder:Flim]]

* ''BigBadBeetleborgs''[='s=] [[http://images.google.com/images?q=Red Striker AV&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=xx-pirate&tab=wi ladybug aircraft]] also fit the trope.

[[http://halo.bungie.org/bwu/images/hornet.jpg Here's]] an image of the Hornet from Halo 3, for those of you who lack the bandwidth or courage to view the above thread.

Examples, in order of size:

* In the video game ''Halo 3'' there a one-man aircraft called Hornets, which have external handles allowing other players to hitch a ride.
* In the movie ''Avatar'', the human forces have helicopter sized ducted-fan gunships.

(Note: the design is, despite how the above list may make it appear, not exclusive to James Cameron)

reply:
Additional examples mentioned in the 4chan thread in the OP:

* ''CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Dawn''
* ''Enemy Territory: Quake Wars''
* ''{{Starcraft}} 2''

reply:
Any examples of the design which predate the first Terminator movie? (1984)

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* The Orca and it's variants from CommandAndConquer are ducted-rotot VTOLs.
* The JSSDF VTOLs from NeonGenesisEvangelion have tilting jet engines.

reply:
''BigBadBeetleborgs''[='s=] [[http://images.google.com/images?q=Red Striker AV&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=xx-pirate&tab=wi ladybug aircraft]] also fit the trope.

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Vehicles like this are seen in the first episode of BubblegumCrisis

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* ''{{Film/Avatar}}'' is the poster child for this. ''Every'' flying machine is a VTOL.

''EDIT: D'oh! It's in there already! Not reading the whole description FTL.''

reply:
But the rotors on a Hornet aren't attached to wings. And the Pelican dropship and the Aliens Colonial Marine dropship don't have tiltrotors at all, but I think they're still in the family of this design. The critical features are VTOL flight envelope, V tail (probably), gunship-canopy pilot position... and not much else. Fundamentally they serve the ''narrative function''of a helicopter, which is why I suggested Futurecopter.

reply:
Looks ready to me. One more example, again from Halo: the Pelican dropship is a pretty close cousin of the dropship from Aliens, and is similarly orbital-drop capable.

reply:
One of the trailers for the BeyondGoodAndEvil sequel