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CES 2014: A Powered, Remote Control Paper Airplane (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the off-we-go-into-the-wild-blue-yonder-with-our-powered-paper-airplane dept.

Shai Goitein started with a powered paper airplane, the PowerUp 1, which was pretty cool. But he didn't stop there. The PowerUp 3 is a powered paper airplane you control with your smartphone. He calls this "a mixture of origami and technology." He also says it's a great toy, class project or whatever for the younger set, since kids start making paper airplanes at the age of six or seven. Adults? Why not? This is obviously a suitable toy for anyone with a two-digit (or three-digit) age number. And PowerUp 3.0 is a Kickstarter-funded project, with (at this writing) $928,091 pledged -- against a $50,000 goal, with another 15 days of Kickstarter funding left to go. There's also a smartphone-controlled PowerUp paper boat kit. Unlike the PowerUp airplane kits, it's not sold out (at this writing). Yet.

6 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Bluetooth by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How hard would it be to make a basic two or three channel RC controller that can handle bluetooth 4.0?

    I'm a long time RC hobbyist and I lament the accelerating trend of using X hundred dollars worth of touchscreen + tilt sensors for the controller.
    It's the difference between using a gamepad and a keyboard/mouse.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:Bluetooth by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      If you're any good with a small soldering iron, you can take a micro-USB cable and a mini-USB cable, hook up a battery and a AWUS036NH 2W wifi adapter, and have wifi control 1/2 mile away from your cell phone. Maybe farther, depending on conditions. It's small, it's portable, and it' legal.

  2. Re:Waiting for NSA by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The CIA has had a remote control dragon fly since the 70s. It was guided by laser and relayed audio and video by the same laser. The things friggen insane given the time period it was designed in.

    http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/30/cia-dragonfly-drone-uavs-40-years/

  3. Re:Smart phones make poor remote controls by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Informative

    well, kickstarter says you can get one for $30 -- but if they hit $2m in pledges, they're incorporating a pinhole camera to the design.
    Raising $1m (which looks like it'll likely happen) will enable "dogfight" mode where the first person to hit the fire button once two planes are close enough to each other will cause the other plane's engine to stall. They've already passed the multi-control (big plane with multiple engines, or multiple planes flying in tandem) and Android targets.

  4. Re:Rudder placement by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

    The thing is, with a paper airplane, you've pretty much got a fixed-speed device (depending on design) with thrust adjusting the incline more than the speed. I haven't seen too many paper airplane designs with a slow enough glide to really benefit from having the rudder aft of the prop.

    But with published APIs and a pretty modular hardware design, you could probably modify it yourself and write your own controller app.

  5. Re:Doesn't look like it can turn by Ksevio · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a bit confusing because the summary links the version 1 - the version 3 (that you can control) has a tiny rudder at the back: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/393053146/powerup-30-smartphone-controlled-paper-airplane