Awesome Drones

Our friends at Team BlackSheep once again show off their drone flying skills, this time taking their compact Vendetta flyer through tight spaces like windows, rolling tires, and on a freaky fast ride through an old shooting range. Part 1 here.

Developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System is able to lurk for months, hundreds of feet beneath the water’s surface, then deploy to carry out aerial missions on command.

Licensed quadcopters based on the 74-Z speeder bike, the Millennium Falcon, the T-65 X-Wing and the TIE Advanced X1. Each quad is equipped with lasers and will have a game mode where three hits with a laser will make the quad land. More here.

GoPro shares this dazzling onboard footage from drone racer Tony Thompson at the Phoenix Cup. The nighttime race’s best part is undoubtedly its neon-lit and multi-altitude race track. We’re getting closer and closer to Wipeout IRL.

You’d think that a quadcopter would be no match for Godzilla, but its power-to-weight ratio lets Tornado XBlades Racing’s custom drone outaccelerate the GT-R off the line, doing 0-to-62 in just 1.3 seconds. Still, the GT-R tops out at almost twice the speed of the drone.

Want to get aerial shots, but don’t have a drone? YouTuber SamTime shows us a silly trick that gives the illusion of video shot from a drone. All you need is a selfies stick, some tape, and a tall friend.

Corridor Digital created an awesome Star Wars fan film using on-board POV camera footage captured from drones, combined with exterior shots and VFX. The drone pilots from Rotor Riot deserve an award for maneuvering around that bridge. Behind the scenes footage here.

An improved version of Rotor X’s RX122 Atom racing drone kit. The palm-sized Atom V2 weighs less than 250g, has a durable carbon fiber frame and lasts up to 10min per charge. It’s available as a DIY kit or fully assembled with a controller that has an FPV screen.

Zero Zero Robotics’ Hover Camera is a light, small and safe camera drone. Its propellers are housed in carbon fiber cages, it can shoot at 4K, and its app and follow-me controls make it easy to use. The catch? It only offers electronic image stabilization, and will cost around $600.

Tim Sessler and Brandon Bray created this short film using drone footage and Hithcockian visual tricks to create a haunting, abstract portrait of the world around us, exploring our endless thirst for building and growth, and the uncertain future that our progress leads us towards.

Practical VFX artist Joey Shanks shows us how to create cool UFO like effects using an off-the-shelf DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter as his instrument of choice. The trick is all about making sure your lights don’t weigh down the drone too much or throw off its balance.

NoodleTail captured video of this dangerous multicopter mod made by Finnish farmers. They attached a chainsaw to a DJI S1000, and added a trigger so they could fire up the saw remotely. But don’t worry, it’s very easy to beat.

Team BlackSheep headed to the desert of Dubai with its speedy TBS Vendetta drone to chase down a group of 1600hp Funco dune buggies as they tore up the sand. And no, that whine isn’t the sound of the buggies’ engines – it’s the drone’s rapidly spinning rotors.

Hit The Awesomer Shop now for a chance to win this impressive new aerial filmmaking tool from DJI, capable of tracking objects, avoiding obstacles, and shooting buttery-smooth 4K video at up to 30fps, and 1080p up to 120fps. Valued at nearly $1,400. (Contest Ends 5/6/16)

To show off the long range flight abilities of their carbon fiber Vendetta FPV racer drone, Team Blacksheep flew the speedy UAV to the top of some very tall buildings – including the 2,722 foot-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

A brief, but cool demonstration of GoPro’s upcoming drone, the 4K-capable Karma, as freestyle skier Bobby Brown appears to toss the flying contraption into the air, and it follows his ride downhill at Aspen Snowmass. Sign up at GoPro for a chance to win one of 100 drones.

While the idea of being towed on your snowboard by a drone sounds like fun on paper, the reality is that today’s consumer flying machines simply don’t have enough power to pull a human at any decent speed. Still, we give the guys who thought of this an “A” for effort.

These colorful little quadcopters are the perfect indoor timekillers. They’re small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and take flight as soon as you toss them in the air. Flight time is about 5-8 minutes per charge.

Drone flyer Bapu FPV shows off footage he captured during his flight through the crazy neon-tinged course at the XDC_2 race which was recently held at Zappos HQ in Las Vegas. Skip to 1:11, then stick around after the race to watch his drone take on a Mustang.

Chinese drone maker Ehang is working on an octocopter that can carry a person. In theory, you won’t need a license to ride the 184 because it pilots itself. It has a maximum altitude of about 1200ft., goes up to 60mph and lasts 23 min. per charge. Skip to 3:50.

Charpu FPV prefaces this video by saying, “No crazy tricks on this one…” But that only serves to showcase his quadcopter piloting skills. Watch him fly his QAV 210 quadcopter through an abandoned factory using the FatShark Dominator video goggles.

We recently saw a couple of motorized knives used to automate kitchen tasks. It turns out that a drone is a much kitchen appliance, doing double duty as a 4-bladed blender and a food processor, as demonstrated by Speed Motion in glorious slow-mo.

Japanese police have modified a drone to pluck nefarious UAVs from the sky before they can do harm. Their drone carries a net that traps smaller drones like flies caught in a spider’s web. They plan on deploying a fleet to protect major government buildings in early 2016.