Star Trek Fan Builds Custom Flying Radio-Controlled Enterprise
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With the release and box office success of Star Trek Into Darkness, director J.J. Abrams has definitely put Star Trek back into mainstream popularity. Whether or not Abrams will return to direct Star Trek 3 is still up for debate, considering his obligations to Disney, Lucasfilm, and Star Wars: Episode VII. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the influence of Star Trek in geek and pop culture.
Slovakian Star Trek fan and YouTube user TheMiro59 created a radio-controlled U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-D, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s an impressive piece of work that actually flies, but it’s doubtful it will get fast enough to hit warp speed.
TheMiro59 documented how he created the RC Enterprise on his website, and it looks like it was quite the undertaking. First, he created a miniature-scale model of the Enterprise with cardboard and masking tape to see if it could actually fly. He later put togethr a bigger working model from plywood and Styrofoam. He then finished off the RC Enterprise with working, super-bright LEDs and optic fibers to make it glow and shine.
The end product is a scale replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and TheMiro59 added a working motor so it can actually fly with a radio controller. The video below showcases most of the building process, but TheMiro59’s personal website goes step-by-step with images on how he created the model (the website is in Slovak, but if you use Google’s Chrome Internet browser, you can translate it into English).
Watch TheMiro59’s flying Enterprise in action below. Skip to the 3:00 mark to watch it zip and glide across an open field, and then crash, again and again. Building the Enterprise-D must be easier than learning how to fly it.
