This tiny, aerobatic, smartphone-controlled aircraft is the latest paper plane from company PowerUp.
The PowerUp Dart is a plane with an airframe made of paper. It uses a lightweight, carbon framed electronics module that sits atop the folded paper wings. Unlike most RC aircraft, this has been the standard theme across all of PowerUp's aircraft to date. This one is a little different though - it's aerobatic! People seem very excited about this product, so let's put it to the test.
The PowerUp Story (So Far)
The PowerUp campaign gained a lot of attention when it announced its first RC plane. Yep, a lot. Something about its simple mission to put the tech needed to make a traditional paper plane R/C controlled into the hands of everyone really captured the Kickstarter community's imagination. Subsequently, the company was rewarded with a huge $1.23m on the fundraising website. This made it one of the most funed projects ever on Kickstarter! Going back before this, however, the first plane was announced all way back in 2011. This and the 2.0 version were simple free-flight conversion kits that could be used to get a paper plane to fly for well over a minute.
After the PowerUp 3.0 was released, PowerUp's first RC flyer, it was only a matter of time before the people behind these impressive paper planes took another giant leap into the world of FPV. The PowerUp X FPV included a pair of cardboard video goggles to create a truly immersive experience, much like goggles in the RC industry. These translate small head movements from the wearer into control inputs. The airplane is also equiped with a gyro, barometer, compass, and accelerometer meaning that it pretty much flies itself. Pretty neat hu? Although much more expensive at the time, this plane is now just $89.95 making it an affordable option for people to try a form of FPV for the first time.
We got our hands on a couple of early versions back in 2016. Although we had a few problems getting them to work properly, it turned out that we had done something wrong (which is not unlike us).
Unfortunately, the 'crossbar', which is a vital component of the clip-on pod, wasn't fully secured in place on the PowerUp X FPV. Next time we'll know how to set it up properly!
The Dart
The new aircraft in PowerUp's fleet, the Dart, quickly met its own fundraiser goal of $25,000 showing that enthusiasm of the paper plane concept hasn't waned one bit. The Dart is an aerobatic version of the previous 3.0 PowerUp plane and comes with an impressive array of upgrades.
The module of the Dart is smaller than that of the 3.0. It, therefore, clips to smaller, sportier airframes which helps the aircraft to perform some of those impressive moves. What also helps is the powerful upgraded motor. All-in-all, the new power setup gives the Dart a very respectable power to weight ratio that allows it to climb almost vertically.
One thing to note with the Dart is that you don't just get one airframe design - instead, you get several to choose from. Something we love at Flite Test is creativity, and PowerUp reassuringly encourages it. You can fold the 'special' aircraft paper included in the Dart kit or download templates online. If you check out the PowerUp website, you'll see that the company even runs competitions that spurs their customers to come up with their own aircraft, even if they're made from other materials.
In addition to this, PowerUp has built its own maker platform for pilots to share their own custom paper plane templates and more. There are all sorts of wacky designs on there that people have made. It seems to be a thriving community that draws quite a few parallels with our own Flite Test collective. As you'd imagine, the popular new Dart has been modified extensively! You can explore the site here: https://flightdeck.poweruptoys.com
There's a new landing gear included in some versions of the new Dart kit. This opens up a whole new realm of flying opportunities as you can take off from desks indoors or land on very smooth surfaces outside. A sheet of cardboard might even work for these tiny machines.
Flying The Dart
Linking to your phone is easy with Bluetooth. It's a similar painless process to the Ryze Tello reviewed some months ago, although that drone uses WiFi. The interface is simple and intuitive.
Types of stunts you can do
- Wingovers
- Barrel rolls
- Spins
- Loops
- Lazy 8
- Hammerhead
- Scissors
- Immelmann
When it comes to crashing the Dart, you don't really need to worry about the possibility of breaking your aircraft permanently (like with most RC models). Replacing airframes is easy. All you have to do is unclip your electronics pod, fold up a new glider and reassemble. We even made our own airframes here at Flite Test HQ.
As you experiment with making new airframes, you'll see that different wings affect the flight performance and characteristics of the Dart. It's great for learning about the essentials of flight.
To get to grips with the brand new Dart, to best assess how the airplane differs to previous PowerUp generations, we thought we should play around with the customization ability of the aircraft to see how far we could take it. Here's our experience.
To sum up our thoughts on this airplane, the PowerUp Dart is more than just a simple toy to play with once or twice. As we've seen, it really does have the scope to be much more than that. If you'd like to find out more, visit the PowerUp website here: https://www.poweruptoys.com
Links
Visit the Flite Test Store for more airplanes
Article by James Whomsley
Editor of FliteTest.com
Contact: james@flitetest.com
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/projectairaviation
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