Awesome Drones

Drones can be used to capture aerial images or deliver packages, but they can also be weaponized. Mark Rober explores some of the technology being developed to take down dangerous drones. Then, he teamed up with fellow makers to build backyard drone defense tech, including a mega-turret, an electrified stream of liquid, and a powerful vortex cannon.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla takes us on an updated tour of Gigafactory Berlin. The drone’s-eye view of the factory puts viewers as close as they’ll ever get to metal stamping presses, industrial robots, and other massive machines. Tesla expects the facility to crank out hundreds of thousands of its Model Y crossovers and millions of battery cells.

Max Verstappen showed off his new Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 car in spectacular fashion. Zooming around Silverstone’s 5.8 km (3.6 mi) Grand Prix Circuit, he was pursued by the Dutch Drone Gods and their custom drone that flies at up to 350 km/h (~217 mph). Drivers David Coulthard and Liam Lawson helped with some trial runs before the big test.

Drone pilot and photographer Joshua Turner visited Shanghai, China, where he managed to fly his Iflight quadcopter alongside the nation’s tallest skyscraper. Currently, the third-tallest building in the world, the sleek 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower looks incredible through the lens of Joshua’s GoPro11 Mini camera. He also flew around a few other tall structures.

DJI is best known for its high-quality videography drones. Their FlyCart 30 quadrotor is meant for delivering goods to remote locations. It can carry up to 66 pounds with a range of 9.9 miles and speeds up to 44.7 mph. DJI says it can fly in temperatures from -4° to 113° F and winds up to 26.8 mph. Its winch can also lower items into locations without having to land.

This spherical plaything flies and hovers when you toss it. If you throw it just right, it’ll also come back to you like a boomerang. It uses a pair of counter-rotating fan blades to work its magic, and they’re contained inside of a cage to protect them from damage. The one in Roo’s Reviews’ video is no longer available, but there are many other versions on Amazon.

Because umbrellas do their job pretty well, there hasn’t been much need for innovation in their design. I Build Stuff came up with a modern spin on the old umbrella by making one that flies and hovers above his head. The umbrella drone has lots of drawbacks like it doesn’t fold and has a built-in time limit, but it’s still a fun build.

Well, here’s a stunt you don’t see every day. Watch as Red Bull athlete Brian Grubb wakeskates across a Dubai rooftop swimming pool, goes flying off a ramp, then deploys a parachute for an epic BASE jump from 964 feet up. They used a customized drone to pull him across the pool since there was no room for a boat.

Director of photography Nikita Khatsarevich captured this amazing tracking shot for the video for Mata’s track M. Shooting the sequence involved connecting a drone to a handle that could be grabbed in mid-air, handed off to a passenger in a car, and then attached to its trunk. Watch the behind-the-scenes video to see exactly how it was done.

This specialized aircraft takes off vertically using four electric fans, then rotates its wings to fly horizontally. The compact X-P4 shown in this video is designed for logistics missions and can carry up to a 15-pound payload to a distance of up to 60 nautical miles. PteroDynamics is working on larger models which can carry up to 220 pounds. (Thanks, Sean!)

FPV drone pilot Tony Catapano aka Tonnoz takes us on a flight through the twisty and turny art installation known as Tiger and Turtle. Located in Duisburg, Germany, the interactive sculpture allows visitors to walk along its undulating staircase like a human rollercoaster. It’s especially awesome lit up at night.

Nik from Supercar Blondie scored an exclusive flight in the Hexa Lift, a lightweight, single-passenger drone from Lift Aircraft. Designed for recreational use and backed by robust safety systems and a remote monitoring crew, the 18-rotor electric aircraft can be piloted by an amateur with less than an hour of training.

We’ve seen what it’s like at the top of the Matterhorn for a wingsuit flyer. Now, head back to the peak of Hornli Ridge for an epic drone flight courtesy of pilot Joshua Turner. He captured the incredible footage of the iconic mountain summit using an Iflight Chimera 7 drone, a DJI Air Unit rig, a GoPro Hero 10 Black camera.

Mikhail Parkhomenko’s short film is more sizzle than steak, but what a sizzle it is. The loopable sequence was shot by pilot Emil Khaziev whose FPV drone descends from inside a building, chases a car, flies inside of it, then pauses to observe a scene. To pull that off a passenger had to catch the drone in motion while the pilot cut power.

Most DoorDash and GrubHub deliveries are made using gas-guzzling cars sitting in traffic. Zipline hopes to change that with drones that hover 400 feet up, then lower a small delivery unit to quietly and safely drop off small packages. Mark Rober explains the tech and how Zipline has been saving lives with their existing drones.

The 2717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa towers over Dubai as the world’s tallest building. André Larson took his drone to the architectural wonder, then flew it down the side of the skyscraper for an incredible first-person flight towards the ground. Watch it in 4K full-screen for maximum impact, though it might make you dizzy.

Sean Buckelew’s animated film explores what might happen if the government combined artificial intelligence and drone technology to enable a war machine that makes “objective, compassionate, and ethical” decisions. While live-streaming a demo of its capabilities, a programming error causes it to rethink its purpose.

Now that they’re done building their foam board Iron Giant, the guys from FliteTest are headed back to the skies. Their plan: build a working version of the Iron Vulture from TaleSpin, a massive airship that doubles as a flying aircraft hanger. In this video, they work on getting its 14-rotor airframe to fly.

Drone pilot Captain Vanover takes us on a thrilling acrobatic flight through the woods of Oregon with the Portland FPV crew. Be aware, though – the tumbles, rolls, and spins through the trees might make you dizzy. Watch in 4K if you can.

More than 70,000 bohemians, hippies, punks, and outsiders descended on Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for Burning Man 2022. Filmmaker Jesse Chandler forgot he had applied for a permit to fly a drone at the festival, but we’re glad he got a reminder, or we wouldn’t get to enjoy his amazing aerial time-lapse footage.

Hop aboard for a captivating aerial tour of Indonesia’s incredible beaches, volcanoes, rice fields, and waterfalls courtesy of GoPro Award-winning FPV drone pilot Nathan Mallory, who captured this incredible 4K and 5K footage using a Go Pro HERO11 Black action camera.

The Chicago Cubs enlisted the drone experts at Sky Candy Studios to take us on a unique aerial tour of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The flight starts out over the Red Line elevated train, zooming through Murphy’s Bleachers, around the park, into the stands, through the scoreboard, along the ivy, and into the Cubs’ modern clubhouse.

We’ve been following Tom BetGeorge’s Halloween light shows for more than a decade. Now that he’s moved to a new neighborhood, he’s got room for an even bigger spectacle. His 2022 show tops them all with new lighting effects and an army of illuminated drones displaying colorful images over his house.