Radio Controlled SpaceX Starship Belly Flop

I started my own Starship program because I was tired of waiting to see SpaceX's high-altitude SN8 flight test. This radio controlled Starship has complete control surface actuation like the real thing and can takeoff, hover, and do the elusive belly flop maneuver.

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dRehmFlight Flight Controller:    • dRehmFlight VTOL - Teensy (Arduino) F...  
Radio Controlled Starhopper:    • Radio Controlled SpaceX Starhopper  
Starship Animation:    • Starship SN8 20km Hop w/ corrected la...  

I've seen others try a radio controlled Starship, so I figured its my turn to figure it out too. I made a fully functioning (electric) Starship that can take off vertically, skydive down, and land vertically. To my knowledge, nobody else has done all three before. This RC Starship is mostly 3D printed with some carbon spars and foam. It uses conventional drone electronics, servos, and radio equipment to allow me to fly it from the ground. In this video, I'll show you how I built it, the problems I encountered, and plenty of flight test (and crash) footage. I will fix this version and take it out again for more flight tests where we can really put it through it's paces for more precision landings. If you liked this or want to stay up to date on my Starship program, please consider subscribing! More fun projects to come.

00:00 Intro
01:16 Design Overview
02:05 The Build
03:37 How it Works
05:12 First Test Flights
07:15 Hover Tuning
08:42 Complete Flights
11:28 Crash and Conclusions

#SpaceX #Starship #Drone