Dave,
I think a group effort is unlikely. I might participate in a group effort but I would be working on my own design as well.
I think we should each work alone, as each project is so different, but get help from the group as needed.
So forming a voluntary design assistance group would be good.
Taking on the challenge of designing and building a rotorcraft is giving me some distress (heartburn). But I feel I have no other choice, nothing else would be as interesting. So my plan now is to break the process into small chewable parts.
got to run now to Home Depot for a 2x4