Product: Electric Paper Airplane Conversion Kit
Company: ThinkGeek
Price: $19.99
Review by: Archie Easter
The electric paper airplane conversion kit from PowerUp promises to add a working motor to paper plane creations. And what person wouldn’t want to turn a boring paper glider into a genuine ruler of the skies?
The kit includes an attached motor and miniature battery, a charger powered by three AA batteries, and instructions on how to make a plane. The charger works much the same way as miniature helicopters and RC cars function. After touching the contacts on the motor assembly to the charger for a few seconds, the propeller starts to spin. After about 20 seconds, the little motor gives the plane about 2 minutes of flight time before it must be held to the charger once again.
Once attached, the motor, support shaft and miniature battery extend along the length of the plane, adding a fair bit of weight. Due to this additional heft and speed, this is a toy that’s definitely meant to be enjoyed outdoors.
On the bright side, the kit works surprisingly well in making the planes travel faster and farther. In addition, the propeller and motor are durable enough to sustain a number of crashes and keep spinning. I did manage to knock the propeller off a few times during my tests, but it was fairly easy to slide back on the motor for the next flight.
As an added bonus, the box that the kit comes in is long enough and sturdy enough to store one or two planes safely without fear of destroying a budding engineer’s latest masterpiece of aeronautics. At $20 retail, the PowerUp electric paper airplane kit is a tad expensive, but it’s fun and durable enough to keep potential pilots flying for hours.
For more info, thinkgeek.com
Pads & Panels received an airplane kit courtesy of ThinkGeek for review purposes.
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