Watch This Drone-Powered R2 D2 Soar Into the Sky (Video)

The impending reboot of the third Star Wars trilogy has yielded a feast of fan-made models of vehicles and robots featured in a galaxy far, far away, from Millennium Falcon quad-copters to a life-size replica of a roving BB droid, and now, a flying R2 D2.

The (gadget) journey continues.

The impending reboot of the third Star Wars trilogy has yielded a feast of fan-made models of vehicles and robots featured in a galaxy far, far away, from Millennium Falcon quad-copters to a life-size replica of a roving BB droid, and now, a flying R2 D2.

In preparation for Comic-Con, Otto Dieffenbach constructed a card-board R2 D2 that has a drone at its base, allowing it to fly. Visually, the model looks different from other R2 D2s in that the dome is open to allow the air for the drone engine.

 

In the film, R2 D2 uses a pair of rocket-boosters to launch itself into flight.

 

Modifying your drone to make it look like a spacecraft is the more intuitive route for designers, but Dieffenbach goes further than that; in addition to his R2 drone, he’s made a flying Harry Potter on-a-broomstick, a floating Monster Energy Drink, and even a hovering Christmas Tree.

 

The growing ubiquity of drones, pricy as they are today, could allow it to occupy the same—or higher—position that Legos or boardgames like Monopoly did for the previous generations. Competitive drone racing leagues have already started to dot the globe, and drones that could both fly and sail on water—perfect during trips to the beach—already exist.