Rotor DR1 Build and Short Film

To The FliteTest Community,

We were fortunate enough to get our hands on a replica body from the movie production Rotor DR1.  The original plan was to create Rotor DR1, fly it around and make a basic build video and share.  However, while Jared was building the Tricopter to house DR1, a MESArc short film involving the same basic storyline of the actual Rotor DR1 production should be put in to place. First was Rotor DR1 and its build, Jared took up that responsibility and he did a great job.

Then assemble the electronics for test flight.  We used the FT Electrahub as the center fuselage plate, the FT Tough tilt for the Yaw mech in the back, a KK2 board, basic motors and ESCs.

After Jared completed the build and test flown, we gave DR1 a paint job based on our take of the movie.  This wasnt the actual DR1, we made ours more angle like, seen here.

With DR1 completed, we began creating the storyline, this involved some of the students that didn't get that much face time during the year.  The MESArc productions team was involved too, below was our story line;

The story of Rotor DR1 came true, a worldwide viral outbreak leaving much of the population dead or missing. The sky became full of autonomous drones. After being stranded and promised that another Rescue Party would come, Jared, Tucker, and Lauden try to survive in the wait. Getting scarce on food, and Drone hunters moving in on the area due to the Drones rerouting themselves, a tough decision on the group was to leave or stay. To their surprise, a Rotor DR1 was created due to the lack of transportation and unrest in the region and sent to the area in hopes to relay the message to follow DR1 to the nearest Safe House. The hope was that the area survivors would recognize DR1 as a "safe drone" and follow it. It worked, however, Drone hunters also knew its value too and sought after the drone for their power supply.

After getting permission from Chad Kapper to use footage and to create a short film, we began shooting during the lunches. 6th and 8th graders shot the film, trying to capture the best possible angles, the production team got all necessary footage from Rotor DR1 Youtube episodes, and there ya go, a cool short film involving all kinds of learning aspects, and it was a lot of fun!

Got some cool character pics!

Our movie poster!

Too much fun!  Thank you to Rotor DR1 director Chad Kapper for allowing us to carry on a story and use footage, for FliteTest for sending the body out to us, and special thanks for all of you for watching and supporting us over this school year.