Appropriately dubbed “Mythical Beast,” Rich Hamel’s newest flying machine is a radio-controlled dragon. Painting an RC helicopter to resemble a flying reptile is simple enough, but Hamel went all out, equipping his seven-foot-long metal beast with a Jetcat P80 Kerostart turbine engine and the ability to spit fire.
Granted, what this design offers the Beast in ferocity and barbecue-lighting utility, it somewhat detracts from the thing’s maneuverability. Hamel has published multiple videos of his flying macine (have a look below), and for all intents and purposes, during flight the Beast is just an unwieldy plane. We weren’t expecting it to hover in mid-air, wings flapping as it sent gouts of flame toward unseen Norse gods in the sky, but it does look like a simple baseball bat and a bit of patience would be enough to fell this might creature.
Of course, then you run the risk of the entire thing detonating like a metallic-green pipebomb, so in the end it’s still a pretty formidable foe.
As to why Mr. Hamel opted to construct a miniature dragon — wait, you’re actually going to ask why? — we recommend viewing this RC Universe interview with the man himself in which he goes into pretty intense detail on the construction and flight characteristics of his creation. That head? It isn’t just there to look cool and spray incendiary gases. It actually provides lift to the front of the machine, and by articulating to and fro offers a relatively simple (if uncommon) way to control the dragon’s flight. RC geeks will likely understand more of the fine details than most, but it’s still an intriguing look at what goes into building a tiny flying machine.
Then again you’re probably still watching that clip of the dragon breathing fire below, so we’ll just busy ourselves elsewhere while you imagine all the havoc you could wreak with one of these things.
