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Homemade RC Millennium Falcon Is the Drone You've Always Dreamed of Flying

Posted by samzenpus on from the drone-that-made-the-kessel-run-in-less-than-twelve-parsecs dept.

MojoKid writes Here's a dose of Rebel goodness to tide you over while you wait for the next Star Wars trailer. A drone enthusiast in France recently graced the web with a few videos of a self-built quadcopter with a shell designed to look like the Millennium Falcon. It's enough to make a Star Wars fan tear up. The drone features a blue thruster light, just like the real Millennium Falcon, and has bright front lights as well. Its creator, who goes by "Oliver C", has some serious modding skills. The shape of the Millennium Falcon presented Oliver with some challenges, but he has the balance more or less handled by the time the spaceship (or quadcopter) takes its first flight outside.

51 comments

  1. Well Done! by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looking for a holiday gift for the nerd that has everything?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Well Done! by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Downside is that its handling resembles Jar Jar at the wheel

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Well Done! by operator_error · · Score: 1

      Hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy. Without precise calculations you could blast yourself through a star or a supernova, and that'd end your journey real quick.

    3. Re:Well Done! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah - I'm waiting for Jet powered drones with afterburners and stealth less than a yard long. Why not - the demand is there.
      Propeller crap. Not sure how they will do the range supersonically, and it would surely do some damage it it crashed. But since there are plane parachutes, this could firmly become hobbyist grade toys for those tired of toy rockets.

    4. Re:Well Done! by rwa2 · · Score: 1

      Yo Dawg, I heard you like flying drones, so I
      http://www.cnet.com/news/hobby...

    5. Re:Well Done! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Mini turbines $10K.

      Mini pulse jets $100.

      A quad pulse jet would be very cool. Kind of loud.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  2. will it by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make the Kessel run? If so in how many parsecs?

    --
    Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    1. Re:will it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She's fast enough for you, old man!

    2. Re:will it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These are not the drones you are looking for.

  3. Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Arabs dream of 72 virgins, western virgins dream of star wars drones.

    1. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arabs dream of 72 virgins, western virgins dream of star wars drones.

      You don't really want to bang a virgin. She will ALWAYS remember you... ALWAYS. It's the one time women slip out of the "never admit the other person has the advantage! EVER!!" mode and act desperate and borderline obsessive. Trust me, you don't want this. Society does not frown on women acting this way nearly as hard as it does on men acting this way. You have been warned.

    2. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, virgins tend to be boring as anything. They lie there, doing nothing, not really knowing what to do.

    3. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck one virgin a year then... 72 women chasing you around for sex by the end of your life... never without sex again.

      Can someone post a graph of what this would look like?

    4. Re:Dreams by The+Rizz · · Score: 1

      Arabs dream of 72 virgins, western virgins dream of star wars drones.

      You don't really want to bang a virgin.

      I think Dana Gould said it best.

    5. Re:Dreams by zapadnik · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sorry, it's not "Arabs" that dream of virgins as the reward for al jihad al asghar against their hated infidels, it is Muslims (subscribers to the political ideology invented by Caliph Abd al-Malik called "Islam"). There are many Arabs who are Christians (Assyrians, Copts, etc), Druze, Yazidis, even a few Zoroastrians have not yet been slaughtered by the various Muslim sects. An Arab is a member of an ethnic group who may or may not believe in the ideology called "Islam", and tens of millions of Arabs do not.

      ps. for those Slashdotters who think Islam was created by Mohammed (which is the orthodox Islamic fiction) you are well behind the current historical scholarship. See Dr Tom Holland's research (acessible through his very readable book "In the Shadow of the Sword") for the evidence that shows that the Koran was neither original (much of it plagiarised from early Christian and Jewish stories of the region) and satellite imagery shows that from 630 CE to 725 CE the qibla of all mosques pointed to Petra, not Mecca (decisively showing that the Islamic narrative of its origins is completely false). The story about what the First Arab Emperor (Mohammed) did, where he came from, what he said, and the origins of the Koran are all fictions added well after Caliph Mohammed was dead. The superstition/supernatural aspects of Islam were (badly) plagiarised from the Arian heresy of Christianity and seem designed to provide divine justification for the Arab Empire to counter-balance the Jewish and Christian traditions of the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Empire. These are new historical discoveries - we live in interesting times!

      For those wanting to know some of the arguments but don't want to read Dr Holland's book, you can get a flavor of the emerging scholarship on the origins of Islam (and the complete falsehoods of orthodox Islamic doctrine) at YouTube discussions such as:
      "An Historical Critique of Islam's Beginnings - Jay Smith" [72 mins]
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Sorry to wander off-topic there Slashdotters. I just had to respond to that incorrect identification of the Arab ethnic group with a doctrine of Islam. I hoped you find the rest of the post informative - because believing that Islam was created by Mohammed has now shown to be as out-of-date as believing the Sun goes around the Earth (although a lot of people are yet to catch up to the new information; and of course, those with a vested interest will resist the new information - but it is the truth, amigos and amigas).

    6. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "much of it plagiarised from early Christian and Jewish stories of the region" - you're unstudied. The Bible, Talmud, Torah and Koran all come from the same sources.

    7. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, a religion that borrowed and remixed elements from nearby mythologies, with bits changed and rewritten after the fact for political reasons! That's not new either, how dare they!

    8. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "much of it plagiarised from early Christian and Jewish stories of the region" - you're unstudied. The Bible, Talmud, Torah and Koran all come from the same sources.

      Yeah, somebody's arse.

    9. Re:Dreams by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      You do realize that the Koran literally contains the Bible which literally contains the Torah right? Islam is to Christianity as Christianity is to Judaism. Mohammed considered himself a profit of god, and also weirdly enough considered Jesus to be a prophet, not the son of god. I always kind of laugh when Christians say things like screw Allah, not realising that Allah = God = Yahweh, they all supposedly worship the same god.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    10. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know right? It's like they made all that stuff up!

    11. Re:Dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Sun does go around the Earth! You can check about half of this for yourself by observing the location of the Sun (assuming you're on the Earth). In fact lots of celestial bodies go around the Earth. They mostly do so once every 24 hours. Lots of others just go around in circles. Some things hardly move: Polaris, Sigma Octantis, and all our geostationary (well, duh) satellites for example. Here's a video.

    12. Re:Dreams by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Everybody is laughing at you, smartypants. Nothing like posting a condescending comment that is _completely wrong_.

      The Koran doesn't contain the Bible or the Torah. It does contain stories that are based on 5th century mistranslations of the bible into Arabic.

      The Koran is just like the book of Mormon. It can be definitively shown to be the work of man based on inclusions of period mistranslations in their versions of earlier 'holy books'.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    13. Re:Dreams by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Funny, cause you said the same thing as I did.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q...

      Wikipedia also says the same thing.

      I would agree on the book of Mormon, it is much like the Koran as it is a further book on the bible. Of course it includes period mistransilations as they included the books from the time, not from the future.

      You could claim that I was wrong in saying it "includes" the Bible and Torah, as it appears to be more of that they tell the same stories from the same sources, but that is just a matter of being pedantic about include meaning the same as in programming.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    14. Re:Dreams by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You understand there is a big difference between including all of something and including small parts of it.

      Their problem isn't that they included the mistranslations. It's that they claim they were independently given the same stories from god, paraphrased in a different language. But the stories include the errors that were present in the copies in their hands. Clearly Joseph Smith just copied those books from his King James Bible. He claimed he independently translated the books from reformed Egyptian with gods help.

      The Koran has similar problems. Old testament stories told wrong; reflecting mistranslations that were present in 6th century Arabic bibles.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    15. Re:Dreams by zapadnik · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Well said. Of course, the written Arabic language as we know it did not exist when the fragments of the Koran were supposed to have been written. They would have been in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic - which makes sense, because much of the material was plagiarized. Only later was the back-story created and the first Arabic versions created (although they contained only 43 Sura, and the other Suras were added later - all which show that neither Mohammed nor Allah were the authors of the Koran, as Islam claims).

  4. meh. by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    this hit G+ several days ago. I'll be impressed when it comes with two quad-cannon emplacements and smugglers nooks.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:meh. by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      I too like my models to be a bit nookie...
      hopefully unoccupied...
      Definitely don't want no Wookie in my nookie...
      Have seen some that qualify as Wookie nookie...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  5. snowspeeder sound by hort_wort · · Score: 1

    It sounds very similar to a snowspeeder. Maybe he should make one of those next.

  6. Was a drone by fred911 · · Score: 1

    Before he removed the GPS, and Gopro . Now it's an RC quad covered with a shell. Now it's impossible to fly without line of sight and is significantly less efficient than it was before the "show" mod.

      Personally, I rather have FPV, RTH and the ability to program autonomous flight. Show and no go!

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re: Was a drone by jd2112 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So it's a hopped up modified hunk of junk. Kind of increases its authenticity.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  7. I don't remember by Snufu · · Score: 1

    four massive holes in the middle of the Millennium Falcon. Maybe my memory was wiped by the sequels.

    1. Re:I don't remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's from the new trilogy. Doesn't end well for ole falcy i'm afraid.

    2. Re:I don't remember by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Funny

      four massive holes in the middle of the Millennium Falcon

      Well that's what happens when you let a Star Destroyer shoot first.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    3. Re:I don't remember by khr · · Score: 1

      He made some custom modifications himself...

    4. Re:I don't remember by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      After a 30 year celebration on Endor to celebrate the end of the Empire, Han Solo got stuck with the beer bill for all those drunken Ewoks.

  8. What a Piece of Junk! by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    n/t

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  9. Missed title opportunity... by hilather · · Score: 1

    This is the drone you're looking for.

  10. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope, I dream of inventing a predator drone that chews them up and spits out the nicely quiet pieces

  11. Oblig. by An+Ominous+Coward · · Score: 1

    Great, kid! Don't get cocky.

  12. No it isn't by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Homemade RC Millennium Falcon Is the Drone You've Always Dreamed of Flying

    Stop telling me what to think. Does no-one have any opinions of their own any more?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:No it isn't by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

      Homemade RC Millennium Falcon Is the Drone You've Always Dreamed of Flying

      Stop telling me what to think. Does no-one have any opinions of their own any more?

      OK fine. This is not the clickbait you're looking for...

  13. Post-"Return", obviously by dltaylor · · Score: 1

    Since it lacks the sensor/communications mast knocked off during the attack on the second Death Star, it is post-Return. Maybe that's when the lift blades were added.

  14. The Drone I've Always Dreamed of Flying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... would be the Skylark. (Skylark of Valeron, actually).

  15. Required Quote by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    That's no moon. It's some kid's damn RC toy.

  16. *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could we please stop calling RC helicopters "drones" all the time? An RC toy is not the same thing as a drone, the key distinction being the degree of autonomy and whether the aircraft is performing a real task.

    1. Re:*sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could we please stop calling RC helicopters "drones" all the time? An RC toy is not the same thing as a drone, the key distinction being the degree of autonomy and whether the aircraft is performing a real task.

      No, the degree of autonomy isn't important-- a "drone" is any unmanned aerial vehicle, whether remotely piloted or autonomous. In this case, there doesn't seem to be any real purpose beyond fun, but an RC helicopter with a camera mounted on it can do surveillance just as easily as a full-size drone.

      Besides, what's wrong with calling them "drones"? Does it step on your toes or kill your kittens or something? If the consequences are "some people won't like it," I think I can live with that.

  17. I was thinking something else . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Homemade RC Millennium Falcon Is the Drone You've Always Dreamed of Flying

    I did?