This smartphone controlled paper plane is one of the coolest Kickstarter project we’ve seen this year

BY Jason

Published 7 Dec 2013


kickstarter paper rocket iphone

It’s been quite some time since we’ve covered a Kickstarter project here, but PowerUp 3, a new project, is pretty amazing. It lets you turn any normal paper airplane into a smartphone-controlled rocket with a “PowerUp Smart Module” that attaches to the plane and a companion smartphone app. (thisnation)

The Smart Module is made up of a propeller, rudder and a Bluetooth Smart powered chip to connect to an smartphone. The module is constructed with a carbon finer frame to be resistant to crashes.

Here’s the project video:

This makes for a pretty cool toy, and if you’re interested in buying one, it’ll cost you $40 with an additional $20 for shipping outside the US. The estimated delivery is May 2014, but, as with all Kickstarter projects, it could be delayed.

The project creators already have an iPhone app ready, but they say there’s “risk with development of the Android app” since Android’s Bluetooth Smart API is in its early stage, and isn’t tested to be mature or stable enough. Hopefully, by the time Power Up ships, the creators have figured out fixes for this issue.

Head to the project’s Kickstarter page for more details, and let us know in the comments below what you think about PowerUp.