DIY

It’s been a spell since DroneDJ looked in on aerial DIY maestro, engineering whiz, and geek genius supremo Nicholas Rehm, who of late has been working new scientific magic developing a bodyless multi-rotor drone that uses 300% less battery power when the entire craft starts spinning like a detached helicopter blade – and remains aloft with two of its three motors shut down.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… actually a sparrowhawk-shaped drone (screech and all). And it was built by a group of creative, driven Cuban engineers using scrap materials they rummaged up on the boycott-hobbled island nation.

The hobby drone industry has really converged on the quadcopter as its go-to design. But just like birds, drones continue to evolve from their lumbering ancestors. Could evolution have taken a different path? What’s better than four propellers?

How about just one?