title_body: How do I calculate thrust for a quadrocopter? I am designing a quadrocopter style aircraft that uses a 20 inch propeller 1.625 inches in width and has a pitch of 8 inches. How do I calculate static lift / thrust and the dynamic thrust / lift forces when it would be moving in a direction (not diagonal in an upward or downward).
  
  Thank you.
upvoted_answer: The usual way to calculate exact thrust is actually experimentally, through testing on a thrust stand. There are countless factors that may influence the performance of your particular motor and propeller combination, some of which are hard to measure and quantify, so the exact number has to be found out just by testing it. 
  
  That said, if you only need a rough ballpark, testing your particular combination is not required; you can look up test results for other motors and props of the size you want. 20 inches is very uncommon, so the data may be scarce, though; if you don't find any, doing it yourself is the best bet.
  
  As for dynamic thrust, it is even harder to predict, especially as it depends on the quadcopter's configuration in addition to its attitude and speed; if you want precise enough numbers, you'd probably have to employ either a wind tunnel or a numerical simulation (which is not that unreasonable of a cost for the size of drone you're planning). That said, I'm not entirely sure you actually need it, it's usually sufficient to ensure that the drone's static thrust to weight ratio is high enough (2.5+ is a good number for slow flyers such as camera drones; 4 is good for sporty flying, 8 is good for competitive flying).