7' fire-breathing, flying dragon built by RC airplane hobbyist

Franceso sez, "Rick Hamel, an American RC airplanes builder, created the Mythical Beast, a radio controlled fire-breathing dragon. It's powered by a Jetcat P80 Kerostart turbine, is over 7 feet long and has a wing span of 9 feet. Beside flying, this scratchbuilt dragon is able to breath fire thanks to a liquid propane and a stun gun circuit. Mythical Beast won Best of Show at the Weak Signal event held in Toledo a few weeks ago."

Drago Volante Sputafuoco Radiocomandato - RC Dragon (Thanks, Francesco!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: aviation • fantasy • fire • Gadgets • happy mutants • rc • video • youtube

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http://profiles.google.com/strangeronfire Stranger 0nFire

why do i see this showing up on the next season of “fact or faked”?
LunarMovements

“…this scratchbuilt dragon is able to breath fire thanks to a liquid propane and a stun gun circuit.”

So, where’s the video of it breathing fire?
- http://slinberg.com/ Steve Linberg
  
  I’m guessing it would set itself on fire if it tried to do that in flight at that speed, unless it has one hell of a forward-thrust on its – uh – stun gun circuit or whatever.
  - dainel
    
    So the solution is to fly backward. Or fart fire …
BijouxBoy

Okhay….Anyways, has anyone seen my toenail clippers?
- http://profiles.google.com/carboncow robert feller
  
  I’m glad to read I’m not the only one who wants my money back too on this one!
Metostopholes

I used to be into remote controlled planes, then I took an arrow in the knee.
- Shinkuhadoken
  
  I used to be into “arrow in the knee” jokes like you… then I took an arrow in the knee.
http://egypt.urnash.com Egypt Urnash

I may be biased what with having a long-standing dragon fursona, but this is just about the BEST THING EVER.
- Richard Dagenais
  
  Dragons do not have fur. ಠ_ಠ
  - http://egypt.urnash.com Egypt Urnash
    
    I’ve seen some that do! Also of course dragon hybrids. Because some dragons are randy beasts that will boff anything.
    
    Also of course “fursona” is an imprecise term; it unpacks to “the animal character I sometimes play in the context of the furry fandom” but does not actually say anything about being a fur-bearing creature. Dragons, lizards, birds, naked mole rats, they’re all possible as fursonae. Though there are not many naked mole rats in the furry fandom. If any.
    
    This has been your subcultural discourse for the day! n.n
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

It’s a pity people are still shooting 240p vid in this day and age… and the vid’s missing something to give the thing scale, like a person next to the dragon.
E T

Send it to London for more fun.
- petsounds
  
  ”Sir, we have a possible bogey at 2 o’clock. It appears to be…dragon-shaped.”
  “Launch the missiles, Wellsley.”
  “Sir, someone is having a barbeque on the roof right now. Where the missiles are.”
  “Launch them, damn you! I shall not see London razed by dragons on MY watch!”
  - garyg2
    
    ‘Reign of Fire’ kicked ass.
Finnagain

That could never really fly. The wings are too short.
taintofevil

Spoiler: Godzilla wins.
- chgoliz
  
  Nah. The real spoiler? That kid with the homemade jet pack wins.
Haroun

Thatched roofed cottagessssss!!!!!!!!!
KNHaw

The video doesn’t show the flames in flight, as it’d blow back on the model. I can’t wait to see a variant of a Discworld Swamp Dragon http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Swamp_dragon , where the laws of physics are observed and the flames come out (ahem) the other end.
tylerkaraszewski

If only it had an arduino in it or a pixelated-looking primary color paint job reminiscent of an NES, then the builder would have been a “Maker” instead of a “hobbyist”.
ocker3

Now if they setup the flame so it would exited like a JATO boost, That would be cool :D
- Yacko
  
  Then it would no longer be fire breathing, instead, a fire farting dragon.
  - ocker3
    
    I reckon that would be even better
    - garyg2
      
      see: Dragonheart 2
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

Telephoto lenses, have you ever heard of them?
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

Looks like an RC plane, until it’s close enough to see that it’s a cardboard dragon.
Culturedropout

That’s pretty cool. They just need to make a video of it roasting screaming, fleeing villagers now.

In other thoughts, people who do model rocketry have a sort of “code of ethics” put forth by Estes. I’m pretty sure that they would frown on something that flies around overhead filled with flammable liquid and high-voltage. Just sayin’…
petz79

Yeah, let’s put a liquid propane tank and a flamethrower on a remote controlled RC plane. What could possibly go wrong?
Eric Hunting

Skyvikings…