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Mimiron's head is an endgame raid reward from the game World of Warcraft that's basically a cup with an upwards rotor mounted on the rear and 2 side rotors pointed downwards.

is a video which shows what it looks like.
shows it flying around with a pilot.

The Flying Machine, and the upgraded version Turbo-Charged Flying Machine, is a mount that a player can create themselves using the Engineering profession. It looks more like a traditional helicopter, but instead of a rear-mounted rotor, it has an engine with a propeller on each side.

shows the Turbo-charged Flying Machine flying around.

now, to me as an aviation-illiterate person, it looks like as-is, either mount could not quite work in the real world, but if you made some modifications, they could work. Is this true? Could you make these helicopter-like vehicles work in the real world? Assume current technology or immediate-future technology (available in the next 5 years).

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    $\begingroup$ It wouldn't fly well. Unless the CoG is between the center thrusters and the rear rotor, it would tip forward and crash immediately. It looks like the CoG is likely forward of the thrusters in the center, so bad news for the pilot. Unless, of course, the center thrusters could lift the entire weight on their own and the rear rotor had variable pitch that could go negative in order to provide pitch authority to keep the nose level. $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 14:58

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Could they fly... ...Maybe

The second device looks quite a bit like an Auto Gyro which is very much capable of flight.

The first device looks like (as has been mentioned) the center of gravity would be an issue. If those side pods generated enough thrust along with the main rotor you could get it off the ground however I would think it would be very hard to control.

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  • $\begingroup$ To say nothing of the off-center connection on the shaft for the main rotor. Vibration much? $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 20:21
  • $\begingroup$ With enough thrust anything can fly, as rockets had proved $\endgroup$
    – jean
    Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 20:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Jean rockets carefully balance their thrust with the centre of gravity though. $\endgroup$
    – Koyovis
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 2:59
  • $\begingroup$ @jean With enough thrust, but also _ with enough control _ $\endgroup$
    – MikeB
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 15:24
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The craft won't be able to fly without addressing some serious balancing issues. Both have their rotors far away from the centre of gravity, and this can only be compensated by the rotors if they exert a high torque, by a fixed rotor head. Which will then create serious controllability issues, since there is no way to input cyclic and collective control.

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