Awesome Drone

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superdrone! Expert drone pilot Chris FPV did something fun and strapped a Superman action figure to the front of his high-speed quadcopter. He then captured third-person footage of the superhero’s flight using a GoPro Hero 11 action camera. Here’s another flight from the mini Man of Steel.

The Death Star trench run scene in Star Wars is one of the best action sequences ever – and it was created with practical effects. Star Wars fan Petr N replicated the scene by taking his FPV X-Wing drone for a treacherous flight through a drainage ditch. He’s also got a speeder bike.

New Step Media takes us on a first-person drone flight through the Akademie St.Gallen, a college campus in Switzerland. It must have taken some serious planning and coordination to pull off the continuous three-minute POV shot that zooms in and out of buildings and classrooms. Watch in 4K if you can.

The Great Wall of China is renowned for its astounding 13,171-mile length. But there’s one part of the wall that’s especially notable, not for its length but its height. Parts of the now crumbling Jiankou section are insanely steep and only possible to climb by the most fearless explorers.

Equipped with a DJI Mini 2 drone, photographer Vadim Sherbakov takes us on an eye-opening journey to Siberia’s Lake Baikal. The area is known for its beautiful rock formations, which are even more dramatic when covered with snow and ice. The film’s title is the Buryat word for lake, a tribute to the area’s indigenous people.

On March 19, 2021, Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano started erupting for the first time in over 6,000 years. Drone pilot Björn Steinbekk captured this incredible aerial footage of the searing hot lava as it flows from top of the geological marvel. We’re impressed that the drone survived the intense heat. More footage here.

In the midst of the COVID-19 shutdown, filmmaker Dan Denegre of Space Race Studio headed to the streets of San Francisco with his drone. There, he captured this surreal and disquieting footage of the normally bustling city all but shuttered. Similarly haunting footage is popping up all around the world.

Timelab.pro presents an absolutely stunning montage of aerial photography it captured around Moscow. The ultra high-def video – shot with a DJI Inspire 2 drone – is flooded with detail, contrast, and color, and reflects both the new and old sides of the Russian capital.

FPV drone fanatics Rotor Riot managed to score an amazing opportunity to fly – and then dive one of their drones right into the site of an old power plant as it was being imploded, thanks to the guys at Total Wrecking & Environmental. The resulting footage, while brief, is truly epic.

The Burj al Babas project planned to create a subdivision in Turkey filled with personal castles for the wealthy. However, economic woes caused the project to fail. Now, hundreds of these odd little castle McMansions remain as the world’s strangest ghost town.

Photographer and world traveler Ivan Bondarenko takes us on an aerial tour of one of Earth’s most spectacular locales, the lush, greenery-covered limestone hills near Guilin China, reminding us yet again how amazing our planet is. Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone.

Photographer Robert McIntosh created this impressive one-take shot using a deftly piloted palm-sized drone, a stripped-down GoPro, reverse playback, and the After Effects plugin ReelSteady to smooth out the motion. Here’s some of the raw footage prior to stabilization.

A remote-controlled underwater drone which allows you to capture full HD video (4K model also available) and 16 MP stills using its waterproof camera and LED lighting. It comes with a 30m (~98 ft.) tether, but can be upgraded to operate at depths up to 100m (~328 ft.).

Peter Sripol and his pals like to fly r/c airplanes, but he tried something a bit different for his latest flyer by building a plane that uses two spinning KFC buckets to get airborne, courtesy of the Magnus Effect. Flight KFC185 hits the skies around the 11-minute mark.

GoPro’s long-awaited drone not only captures smooth footage, but folds down to fit in a backpack case, works w/ GoPro 4 and GoPro 5 cameras, has a detachable stabilizer grip for ground level shots, and comes with an easy to use touchscreen FPV controller. Drops 10/23.

It’s but a distant memory, but Grand Theft Auto was once a top-down shooter. Votja Paul decided to replicate the classic view of GTA 2 by capturing real-life action with a drone. The God’s Eye View is still one of our favorite cinematic tricks.