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USS Enterprise Finally Flies

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the arm-photon-torpedoes dept.

apetime writes "Found on Slashdot Japan: Model builder Kaname of Kumamoto, Japan has built a flying radio controlled model of the original Star Trek's USS Enterprise. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for a video. Or go here for an mpeg, and here for a WMV.) The ship measures from 75 cm, and only weighs 16 grams. It's a wobbly flight, but makes you think what else in Star Trek might work if it were tried."

22 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Nice... by Punboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But now the question is, if you transported inside of it, would you shrink?

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    1. Re:Nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You can't transport through the crystal that encloses the shrunken Enterprise. But it does conduct heat, as you can easily check by holding the pendant over a candle.

    2. Re:Nice... by Megane · · Score: 3, Funny
      But now the question is, if you transported inside of it, would you shrink?

      Only if you used Wonkavision.

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  2. uhm... by wo1verin3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I may be wrong, but I don't remember the original enterprise having a propellor. The article indicates that technology from that show may work in real life, but it's using old technology. cool to watch, but only for a slow friday night.

    1. Re:uhm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      I may be wrong, but I don't remember the original enterprise having a propellor.

      Kirk: Ahead, warp factor 7, Scotty.

      Scotty: She given' all she got, but she can' take no more, cap'n. Aye, push'n her any more past 75 kph could rip her prop clean off!

      Spock: My calculations indicate that if we fail to improve the propulsion system, then we will not reach the Romulan Neutral Zone for another 1.343 billion years.

  3. In related news... by k4_pacific · · Score: 3, Funny

    A local radio-controlled airplane hobbiest announced today that he has built a working model of (cue tympanis ... Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum) MEGA MAID.

    --
    Unknown host pong.
  4. wtf. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a wobbly flight, but makes you think what else in Star Trek might work if it were tried.

    Actually, no, It doesn't.

  5. The Original Enterprise Flew by TheRedHorse · · Score: 4, Funny

    .....just with wires.

  6. Pfff that's nothing by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 4, Funny

    You should see my model Borg cube...

    1. Re:Pfff that's nothing by dasmegabyte · · Score: 4, Funny

      Been hucking your Rubick's Cube at your brother again, have you?

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
  7. Propellor? by scooby111 · · Score: 5, Funny

    With the right size engine, you can make anything fly. This isn't a demonstration of how well the "Enterprise" could fly. It's a demonstration of how you can make even a brick fly with the right thrust to weight ratio.

    I like Star Trek as well as the next geek, but this is just plain silly.

    Now, where can I get one???

    1. Re:Propellor? by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

      No kidding. This friend of mine Igor said that with nothing more than a couple of propellors and an engine that he would someday get a big one ton cage of metal and glass to fly and carry people! Yeah, right. I wonder what ever happened to that Sikorsky guy anyway...

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    2. Re:Propellor? by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 4, Funny

      No kidding. This friend of mine Igor said that with nothing more than a couple of propellors and an engine that he would someday get a big one ton cage of metal and glass to fly and carry people! Yeah, right. I wonder what ever happened to that Sikorsky guy anyway...

      It's not the thrust-to-weight ratio that matters here--it's just so ugly that the earth repells it.

    3. Re:Propellor? by b-baggins · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is patently false. Anyone who has ever watched a Star Trek episode (TOS) knows that the Enterprise cannot maintain orbit unless Kirk tears off half his shirt and crawls in a Jeffries tube to repair the engines.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    4. Re:Propellor? by Syphilis · · Score: 3, Funny

      > The point is that there is no air in space

      of course there's air in space; obviously you haven't been to the air in space museum...

  8. Read the Article! by NitsujTPU · · Score: 5, Funny

    Darn you posters who don't read the article! It quite clearly says: "OEã1"NSÔÉí½ÁÄ1"ú1ñÈãSY"-OEfZ¦"Âð`FbN&#233 ;B"

  9. Re:big, fat clue: by great+throwdini · · Score: 4, Funny
    Uhm. I'm sure the USS Enterprise was designed to fly in a vacuum; you know.. cause.. space is a vacuum.

    That's what I thought at first, too. I'm not really a Trekkie, though I must've absorbed the movies and most of TOS and TNG from TV ... which triggers memories from TOS where the Enterprise was seen flying around in the upper atmosphere on at least one episode (e.g., where the crew snaps back to Earth of the 60's and are picked up on radar; jets are scrambled, etc.).

    So, silly as this experiment is, I think there's some evidence that the Enterprise may have been designed to fly around in more than just the vaccuum of space. After all, I saw it on the TV. And TV never lies.

  10. Not the correct configuration for... by stephenisu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Doesn't the saucer portion disconnect for atmospheric flight?

    Still way cool though.

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  11. If only there were . . . by jdcook · · Score: 5, Funny
    "makes you think what else in Star Trek might work if it were tried"

    If only there were something like a communicator. That would be cool. A handheld walkie talkie-like thing only able to talk to almost anybody on the planet. It could maybe even open up like a clam. Sigh. I guess it will never be.

    --
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  12. Even more amazing... by nrlightfoot · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's something here even more amazing than a flying enterprise. They've got a server hosting 4 Mb video files on slashdot's frontpage, and it hasn't crashed yet!

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    what sig?
  13. Re:A propeller, huh? by Nos. · · Score: 3, Funny
    Next task: make a model Bird of Prey that cloaks...

    I did, I just forget where I set it down

  14. This Just In.... by hawado · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reports have been surfacing all over the net that a flying spacecraft was seen in the vicinity of Japan... news at 11...
    Damn good thing they didn't fly this thing near Area 51 or we might have been misled to believe a lone motorcyclist spotted it.

    --
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