FLYING HIGH // Make Your Own Inexpensive Flying Machine with Brooklyn Aerodrome

 

We saw tons of amazing things at the World Maker Faire last month, but one of the coolest was Brooklyn Aerodrome. You may already be familiar with the group, as they taught a 3rd Ward class back in the summer of 2010, but if not, here's a quick summary: they build remote control airplanes out of nothing more than recycled plastic, coat hangers, zip ties, velcro and some simple electronics. We caught up with co-founder Breck Baldwin to ask him about what it takes to fly. Find out after the jump.

Baldwin first got the idea for Brooklyn Aerodrome in 1998 when he saw a satellite breaking up in the sky during Burning Man. "It looked like a silent multi-colored meteor that had all thousands of people looking up and clapping and cheering," he says. "I realized that the night sky is the biggest stage on the playa and there was not much art in it." Later, in 2005, he helped Philip Riley, who now runs Williamsburg's Skink Ink fine art printing studio, design a large illuminated flying eye for the festival.

From there Baldwin began working with Brooklyn Aerodrome co-founder Mark "Splinter" Hardwood and others to design an inexpensive, easy-to-build remote control plane. "The basic towel was and continues to be a collaboration," he says. "I came up with the basic design, Splinter observed that we needed a separable deck with all the electronics on it so we could de-towel our towels with fresh airframes. Lots of folks helped with equipment, design enhancements."

What's a towel, you ask? "The towel is the basic plane that I used for my class at 3rd Ward," Baldwin says. "It is meant to be cheap, less that $100 in parts, quick to scratch build (3-4 hours), fly well and tolerate crashes. It is called a towel because one eve, after 20 or so serious crashes, the nose on my plane got soft and was drooping quite a bit. A fellow named Rounder said it looked like I was launching a wet towel and the name stuck."

"It's lots of work [to build one], but I wouldn't say hard," Baldwin says. "The art planes can be much more difficult to design. Art planes include flying hearts, carrots, bananas, jelly fish, etc."

The best way to get airborne is by attending one of Brooklyn Aerodrome's build sessions. You'll want to order your parts well in advance, though, as some are only available in Hong Kong and take a long time to ship.

Brooklyn Aerodrome's build nights are starting up again in mid-October, so stay tuned to their website and Google group for more info. And one last bit of advice from Baldwin: "Be patient, they love to fly."

Here's a video of Baldwin talking about Brooklyn Aerodrome at the World Maker Faire:

-- John Ruscher