title_body: How do laterally folding propellers affect multirotor flight? There are a number of multirotors on the market which have propellers which fold at the hub, primarily to make storage and transport easier. Centrifugal force keeps the blade extended when the motor is spinning.
  
  However, there is still a flexible coupling between the blade and the hub; what effect does this have on the aircraft during flight?
upvoted_answer: In theory, you can't accelerate and decelerate the props as quickly. If the motor accelerates, the props lower angular velocity keeps it from accelerating too quickly. Same for deceleration: if the motor decelerates, the prop's momentum makes it want to stay fast. It is only when the prop's position exceeds the motor's position, that the centrifugal force will slow it down.
  
  But you have to consider that the angular velocity is quite a lot - therefore the centrifugal force is very high and the prop will only slightly move in its mount, thus not really affecting the flight all that much. Especially, when you consider that most drones with foldable props (e.g. DJI Mavic series) are "smart drones": They probably considered that during development and made it so that the motor speed is only raised and lowered slowly, so the effect isn't too noticeable. Plus, these drones are quite heavy so a tiny little change in prop speed will probably not have a big impact on the position in the air.
  
  As you can see below, the propellers have different angles relative to the motor position. Obviously, propellers can only be designed for one direction of movement. Since the direction changes however, depending on whether it is accelerating or decelerating or at a constant speed, the uplift will be slightly reduced during speed changes of the props.