The Interactive Toy Concepts Micro Mosquito is an indoor-only, radio-controlled toy helicopter designed by Interactive Toy Concepts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The toy was sold in the United States by RadioShack and in Canada by The Source by Circuit City. Both companies held exclusive marketing and retailing rights within each country.
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The Micro Mosquito was introduced in 2006. The toy helicopter was featured in articles both at Yahoo! and The New York Times. Along with You Tube videos, the Micro Mosquito was included in the plotlines of the Fox Network series 24 and the motion picture Homeland Security.
The Micro Mosquito was designed to resemble a mosquito, with a segmented body, insect-like landing legs and bright green LED "eyes." The helicopter required six "C" batteries for the combination charger and display base and one 9V battery for the transmitter. A 7.5V AC adapter with positive tip polarity could be used, but was not included in the retail package.
The Micro Mosquito utilized counter-rotating coaxial blades, each driven by its own motor in order to cancel the rotational torque found in conventional helicopters. This design allowed for a stable hover. This design also did not allow for either collective pitch or cyclic pitch. To accomplish forward motion, a horizontally-mounted tail rotor with its own motor was used. The retail package included tail rotors with more aggressive fixed pitch for faster forward flight.
The helicopter could be operated at two frequencies, 27 MHz or 49 MHz.
Performance of the toy is highly dependent on local elevation. The product manual notes that the toy is unable to fly above 4000 feet due to excessive density altitude. In addition, users report trouble controlling the helicopter in level flight, due to the apparent inadequacy of the design for canceling yaw tendency.
The Micro Mosquito was quickly cloned. A nearly identical (but less expensive) version called "Alany" exists, as well as a "Syma" version. The "Syma" model differs in rotor design, having 2 large blades per main rotor, as opposed to 4 small blades per rotor encircled by a plastic ring. The "Syma" model is also heavier and has more power. It weighs 37 grams (compared to 20 grams for the Micro Mosquito) and has been reported to fly at altitudes up to 9000 feet.
