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Quadcopters are simply helicopters with four rotors. Unlike standard helicopters or tandem rotor helicopters, quadcopters do not need to adjust each blade in a rotor individually in order to roll, pitch, and yaw. This makes their controls a little simpler mechanically. To account for conservation of angular moment, two of the rotors will spin clockwise and the other two will spin counterclockwise.

Quadcopters are particularly popular in model aircraft. They are becoming more popular for unmanned aerial vehicles. The first human powered helicopter was also a quadcopter.