Abstract: An Aerial Vehicle (AV) can be used to deliver and pick up payloads. Operators of such enterprises must be ready to deliver different payloads over different ranges. Prior art would require such operators to maintain a fleet with vehicles of different sizes. Small rotary wing UAVs (RWAVs) popular in the mass market are disproportionately less expensive than large UAVs. This Scalable Multiple Element Rotary Wing Aerial Vehicle (SMERWAV) invention enables operators to meet diverse requirements with a fleet comprised of only one or two different vehicle models. Particular interest is in Rotary Wing AVs such as quadrotor UAVs. SMERWAV elements are connected to enable various missions while an operator operates only one integrated AV at a time. One embodiment SMERWAV is a “Quad-Quad” comprised of four quad-rotor AVs. Optimal configurations are selected using a method disclosed herein. SMERWAV enables low operating cost, redundancy, failure tolerance and interoperability.