When you were a kid have you ever wish you could magically control a paper plane you folded while watching it gliding in the air away from you? Well now you can, with PowerUp 3.0 – a smartphone controlled paper airplane! With the project 100% funded within 8 hours since launch and currently over 5,000 backers racking up the dollars to close to US$300K, there’s no doubt a lot of folks are getting one to relive that dream (buying one for your kid is a good and valid excuse).
[[perfectpullquote]]a range of 55 metres, good enough for the size of a couple basketball courts[/[perfectpullquote]]
PowerUp 3.0 Specs
What makes it work then? Inside PowerUp 3.0 you will find a smart module that contains the brain to connect to your smartphone via bluetooth on an app that will be release to iOS and Android smartphones as well now that they have also gone past the stretch goal of US$150k. At the end of PowerUp 3.0 sits a rudder and a propeller to control the directions and thrust provided from the smart module. The PowerUp will also last a good 10 minutes of air time in a single charge and has a range of 55 metres, around the size of a couple basketball courts.
The only grip is that since it needs to be ultra lightweight and small and since the battery in inbuilt, once it runs out of juice you have to wait for it to complete its charge via micro-USB. We are not sure if it will be possible to easily change the battery or if additional batteries are available for purchase at this moment but nevertheless you can save yourself the trouble of getting a charger since any external battery pack would charge the PowerUp 3.0 just fine.
[[perfectpullquote]]just make sure you use papers with decent thickness[/[perfectpullquote]]We say go for the US$30 pledge – you don’t need the charger (reason mentioned earlier above) and you can easily fold one paper plane from the instructions given, just make sure you use papers with decent thickness. Shipping will cost an additional US$15, totalling the pledge to US$45 (est. S$56.43). For a little under S$60, a paper airplane that you can control from your smartphone sounds like a magically good idea to us.
