7 Foot Long Flying Dragon Breathes Fire

What do you have to do to win best of show at an R/C event in Toledo? Build a 7 foot long fire breathing radio controlled dragon of course! [Rick Hamel] stuffed his electronics, a turbine engine, a kerosene tank, and a stun gun into a home built body shaped like a dragon. You can see a few construction pics that show how he is able to steer. It looks like it flies just like any r/c airplane. This one, however could burn down a village and keep going. Check out the videos after the break to see it flying and testing out its fire breathing mechanism.

[youtube =http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lDSuc82pczM]

[youtube =http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SzP5X9Y58JE]

22 thoughts on “7 Foot Long Flying Dragon Breathes Fire

    1. Perhaps one should look to nature for the answer here. What does real dragons do to avoid the (probably very embarrasing among dragons) “back-fire”-accident?

      1. In much of the footage I’ve seen, when they flame in flight they’re typically aiming down, away from themselves. However, it’s not often that there are significant wind conditions in the footage, so I don’t know how the dragon would handle high-wind conditions. Most literature on them states that they tend to be intelligent creatures, often on par with and sometimes surpassing the intelligence of humans. Perhaps one could study the existing documentation on the subject to find out how they handle flaming on a case-by-case system.

      2. @notmyfault2000

        But, recalling how fire breathers breath fire; they should aim up, as heat rises; and not down. As you say, perhaps more study is needed.

      3. @notmyfault2000
        High winds don’t mean anything in flight. Wind is air moving relatively to the ground, the dragon flies in the air mass at its own relative speed, the one he needs to create the lift that will support its weight.
        Have you seen sparrows flying into headwinds and seemingly not moving (relatively to the ground)? Still they create their own relative wind and are advancing in the air mass, otherwise they couldn’t create lift and would fall off the sky.
        Only when you want to take-off or land is wind a factor, and of course for calculating how long you need to fly if you want to go somewhere…

        That being said, impressive build.

      4. @Michael Chen

        Breathing the fire forward would just travel along the dragon’s skin in high-wind conditions. If we that both bernoulli’s principle and deflection into account, the thin layer of air that is already “sticking” to the dragon’s skin should protect it so long as it doesn’t breathe fire for too long. Add in ablative scales for longer “breathe” time and the problem becomes relatively moot.

      5. The answer here is very obvious. If heat rises, but the village to be burnt is below the dragon… for the fire-breathing dragon to avoid burning itself, simply fly upside down and then breathe fire! Sheesh… simple problem solving here, folks.

  1. Sounds more like EDF than a turbine. You would definatly be able to tell if it were a turbine by the noise it makes, but in this video the whine of the brushless motor makes me think its an electric ducted fan not a turbine (two different things).

    1. I looked at his post. It’s a Turbine. Kerostart Jetcat P80. Even the engine controller in the electronics bay matches the controller for that engine. Nice build.

  2. It doesn’t sound like an airborne dragon. In the footage mentioned above they usually just make swooshing noises, not fan noises. Maybe if one of those mystical japanese toilet anti-sound units was added, this could be improved? xD

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