TechWandering » Toys

FlyTech Dragonfly — WowWee takes wing

Ed — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:14:34 +0000

In the past I’ve written about two easy-to-fly radio-controlled planes (the Aero Ace Biplane and the Aero Ace Jet) and a radio-controlled car/plane/boat hybrid (the Storm Launcher). This time around I’d like to introduce you to something a little more — um — natural: a radio-controlled insect. Well, to be precise, it’s a radio-controlled dragonfly, and it flies by flapping its wings like a real dragonfly. Really.

The FlyTech Dragonfly is made by WowWee, the same people who brought you those more down-to-earth R/C toys RoboSapien and RoboRaptor. This time around they’ve apparently decided to take off in an entirely new direction.

Watching the Dragonfly flying around a room takes a bit of getting used to. Just like its inspiration in nature it has two wings on either side of its body which quickly beat up and down to provide lift. On this dragonfly the wings only provide lift and don’t help with steering like they do with a real dragonfly — that’s something that even the engineers at WowWee didn’t attempt to mimic. Instead they took a page from the way a helicopter is steered and added a small rotor at the tail end of the Dragonfly’s body. The tail rotor is quite small and unobtrusive and doesn’t make the Dragonfly look much different than a real dragonfly as it flutters around.

A real dragonfly has very strange, iridescent eyes that look quite a bit otherworldly. The designers of the Dragonfly took that cue from nature and made the eyes of the Dragonfly unique — they’re not iridescent but they are bright blue LEDs. The LEDs don’t just look cool while the Dragonfly is in the air, they also pulse while the Dragonfly is charging. When the eyes stop pulsing the charge cycle is complete. The Dragonfly takes about 20 minutes to charge and will give you around 7 minutes of flying time when it’s topped off. Not too bad.

Although the Dragonfly is amazingly lightweight (around 0.9 oz.) it’s pretty durable. I’ve crashed mine into just about every wall and every item in my living room (including myself) and I’ve yet to do any damage. The body is made of a lightweight compressed styrofoam and the wings are made of a light transparent plastic. The wings get their structure and additional strength from thin stays which run the length of each wing. Just remember to cut the throttle when the Dragonfly crashes and you should be fine.

The Dragonfly is also durable enough to fly outside, assuming that the conditions are calm. In fact, outdoor flying gave me the opportunity to crash the Dragonfly into all types of new obstacles — trees, shrubs, and myself (again), and, just like after my indoor flying, no damage was done to the Dragonfly. If you’re going to fly outside you’d better wait for a time when there is no wind, though. When you have a toy with a 16-inch wingspan (or wingspans, in this case) which weighs less than an ounce even the slightest breeze is overpowering.

Flying the Dragonfly is just like flying a radio-controlled plane. The left stick on the controller is the throttle control which, in this case, makes the wings flap faster or slower. A bit more than half throttle is enough to keep the Dragonfly flying straight and level. Adding more throttle makes the Dragonfly slowly climb and reducing the throttle makes the Dragonfly fall.

The right stick on the controller is used for directional input. Moving this stick right and left makes the small rotor on the back of the body spin and that makes the Dragonfly turn. Once you get the hang if it you can switch the controller from “normal” to “expert” mode for tighter turns. There’s also a trim control just in case the Dragonfly doesn’t track perfectly straight.

So how easy is it to fly? Up until now I considered the Air Hogs Aero Ace biplane the easiest thing for new pilots to fly because of its slow speed. The Dragonfly actually travels a more slowly but its beating wings give it a more frantic (and mesmerizing) flying style. While both could be flown indoors in a large room by more experienced pilots it’s safe to assume that new pilots will need to go outside until they gain a bit of experience. If the conditions are dead-calm I think the Dragonfly might be the easier of the two to fly because of its slower speed. In any other conditions I’d give the nod to the Aero Ace.

In the box you’ll get the Dragonfly, the transmitter, an extra set of wings, an extra tail rotor, and a small piece of ribbon which attaches to the back of the Dragonfly to slow things down a bit when you’re flying indoors. The included manual is pretty thorough and will walk you through the process of getting your bug into the air.

At the moment the Dragonfly is available exclusively from Radio Shack but over the next few months it’s supposed to show up on the shelves of Target, Toys-R-Us, and even Best Buy. It costs $50, which is almost twice as much as the Aero Ace planes. Then again, there are a lot of radio-controlled planes on the market, but there’s only one radio-controlled flying insect.

Air Hogs Storm Launcher – an R/C Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang

Ed — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:17:14 +0000

I’m not really sure how to classify the new Storm Launcher from AirHogs. It’s fun to drive around on the ground (even on grass). It’s fun to pilot around on the water. And, most importantly, it’s fun to fly. So, do you classify it as it a car, a boat, or a plane? I guess it’s really all three, which explains why I’ve found it next to other R/C cars, boats, and planes, depending on which store I’m in.

Technically, the Storm Launcher is a boat (a hydrofoil) which happens to have skid plates on the bottom of its sponsons so it can be driven on the ground and an elevator on the back so it can fly. The Storm Launcher uses the same thrust-steering that Air Hogs uses with its Aero Ace line (see my other posts on the Aero Ace biplane and the Aero Ace jet). There are no control surfaces other than the elevator on the back so steering is accomplished by speeding one motor up and slowing the opposite motor down. That means that if you cut the power to the motors you can’t steer (you can, however, plummet to the ground, as I’ve proven more than once). This technique of using the motors to steer will be familiar for pilots accustomed to turning with the Aero Aces but it will take some getting used to for pilots who are used to using rudders and/or ailerons for control.

If you’re a beginner R/C pilot looking to take the next step beyond the Aero Aces the Storm Launcher is a great choice. It’s an easy way to learn how to fly a plane that has elevator control. Best of all, you can learn to fly one hop at a time. Zip the SL across a soccer field and pull back on the stick a little bit (a very little bit) — the SL will launch a few feet into the air. Push the stick forward and it’s back on the ground. Once you get used to using the elevator you can increase the amount of time you spend in the air. When you’re ready to initiate a turn while in the air remember to keep power going to the motors or you’ll see for yourself how nicely the SL can perform a cartwheel. Soon you’ll discover just how well this boat can fly (and that’s something that you can’t say about most boats).

Don’t worry too much about breaking it, though — the Storm Launcher is one tough bird — er, I mean boat. It’s made mostly of high-density styrofoam with a bit of high-impact plastic thrown in. I’ve tumbled, rolled, and cartwheeled my SL. I’ve flown it straight down into the ground, straight into a tree, and straight into a pond. Considering its very light weight it handles punishment remarkably well. If it does get damaged it’s pretty easy to repair. Like most toys made out of styrofoam it can usually be glued back together using some CA glue.

For more experienced pilots the SL can perform a surprising number of tricks. In its stock configuration it has a thrust-weight ratio pretty close to 1:1. Loops, barrel rolls, and high-alpha flying are possible in the SL’s stock configuration, but if you remove some of the “excess” weight the thing really flies well. Trim a few grams of foam away (it’s easy to remove the fake air intake and exhaust), remove the prop guards, and get rid of the horizontal wing between the fins (the developers say that it’s just there for looks and to add some stability to the fins) and you have a surprisingly agile plane (er, “boat”) on your hands. Replace the motors and add some stronger LiPo’s and the sky’s the limit. Literally.

As of this writing (October 2006) the Storm Launcher is available for $79 at Toys-R-Us and Target and for $69 at Wal*Mart. (It’s also available at a number of web sites for about the same price.) Don’t forget the batteries — you’ll also have to buy a separate LiPo battery and charger for $29. The developers say that there will also be a “complete” kit which includes the SL and the battery but I haven’t seen it on the shelves yet.

Whether you’re a beginner who wants to get a feel for what it’s like to fly a plane that has an elevator control or an experienced pilot who wants a new “toy” to play around with I’d highly recommend the Air Hogs Storm Launcher. It drives well, it floats well, and it flies well — not bad for a “toy”.

AirHogs AeroAce Jet – More great fun, same great price

Ed — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 07:15:12 +0000

Sometime near the beginning of summer I bought a little radio-controlled plane from Air Hogs called the Aero Ace. I even wrote up a little post about it here. My opinion of the plane hasn’t really changed since then – it’s fun, it’s easy to fly, and it’s the right price: $20 on sale, $30 normally, and $40 at WalMart (I have no idea why).

I’ve now bought a total of 16 AeroAces (none from WalMart) and have given most of them away as gifts, both to kids and to their parents. I’ve kept a couple for myself as backups (you just never know) and I’ve hung one as an ornament in a large tree behind my house. Incidentally, the AeroAce is apparently considered a competitor by Hummingbirds (or maybe a perspective mate – tough to tell) and prey by Sharp-shinned hawks. Like I said, it never hurts to have a few backups.

Recently, AirHogs has come out with a 2nd version of the AeroAce that is more jet-shaped. If you thought the original AeroAce biplane was fun to fly you’ve gotta’ try one of these jets. Compared to the biplane the jet:

flies noticeably faster
climbs faster
glides much better
handles light winds a bit better
doesn’t turn quite as sharply, and
has a little less battery life (slightly bigger motors)

So, which one is better? I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. The biplane can be flown indoors in an oversized room whereas the jet needs a little more space to roam. The jet is probably better for outdoor use if there’s any wind at all. So, which one should you get? I guess the answer is obvious: you need both.

AirHogs AeroAce – A $20 R/C Plane that Really Works

Ed — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 03:07:55 +0000

I’ve had a number of radio-controlled planes from AirHogs over the years and, while I guess what they did could technically be called “flying”, they weren’t very controllable and they weren’t a whole lot of fun.

My first AirHogs plane was the Titan. This beast used 4 ducted fans to generate a huge amount of thrust — almost enough to overcome its massive weight and actually allow the plane to fly. I finally got it into the air with a bit of — shall we say — “aeronautic improvisation” (you know, like taping soda straws to the trailing edges of the wings to act as flaps). By the time I made enough tweaks to allow the plane to fly the batteries decided that they didn’t want to hold a charge anymore. It’s blue, it’s too heavy, and it doesn’t fly, so I named it the “Blue Spruce Goose”.

My next AirHogs plane was the SkyWinder. This plane flew, but it was too fast through the air and too tough to control to fly in small areas (like my back yard). Just about the time I was getting some control over the SkyWinder one of the two propellers went flying off during a flight and the SkyWinder came crashing down and broke one of it’s wings. I pieced it back together but it’s sitting down in my basement keeping the Blue Spruce Goose company.

You can understand, then, why I was a bit skeptical when I saw the Air Hogs Aero Ace. Here was a tiny little plane with a tiny little price ($30, but you can find them on sale for $20). I took a chance and have been having a blast ever since.

This little guy uses a LiPo battery, so the guys at AirHogs were able to keep the weight (and size) down. It takes about 20-30 minutes to charge the plane up and the charge will last for about 10-12 minutes of flight time. There aren’t any controllable surfaces — turning is accomplished by speeding up one propeller or the other. But, unlike my previous two AirHogs planes, this one actually flies in a very slow, controllable manner. I have a small back yard and have no problem zipping the little guy all over the place.

The plane’s bi-plane design helps keep damage to a minimum when the inevitable “incident” occurs. The struts between the wings keep them from bending and breaking, and the propellers don’t extend above or below the wings so they hardly contact anything when the plane goes down. Or lands on the roof. Or bounces off something. Or someone. You get the picture.

So, if you’re looking for a low-cost little r/c plane, I’d highly recommend the AeroAce. Find yourself a little flying space, wait for a day when there’s no wind, and have a blast. It’s too much fun for only $20. (And if you can’t wait for a no-wind day, try taping a dime to the nose. It helps the AeroAce cut through a little bit of wind).