The A-10 Warthog was built around the GAU-8: a 600 pound seven-barrel cannon barfing out 30mm tank-slaying rounds so fast that 1,000 of them make a single sound, which became the plane’s signature song. Not quite as vicious as a Nerf gun, but awesome in a different way.
What you’re looking at here is a remote-controlled A-10, with a rapid-fire Nerf gun mounted inside and connected to a remote trigger.
YouTuber and creator ajw61185 says: “My latest build combines two hobbies, R/C planes and Nerf. I’ve incorporated a stripped down Nerf Rival Zeus blaster into the nose of an old FreeWing A-10.”
Apparently the trigger is rigged up to the same transmitter used to fly the plane, and rattles off its payload of 12 foam Nerf balls in “less than half a second.”
Going deeper, the creator explains:
“I’ve played around with various tabs in the barrel to adjust the amount of spin on the balls and provide a nice flat, or slightly down trajectory. The balls are so light that if I’m flying too fast, I can overtake the salvo I just launched, which you can see in some of the on-board shots. As with other Nerf Zeus mods, it will also launch Nerf Mega Darts (last pass in the video). They seem to handle the airspeed of the aircraft better, but you can only fit three in at a time. Strafing runs were remarkably effective on some cardboard T-72 tanks, and putting on a pair of goggles to get the first person view is amazing. Also, yes, I picked up all the balls on the field and somehow managed to not lose any.”
Man, I’d barely gotten over how badass a remote-control A-10 is even without the camera or cannon by the time the video was over. Here this dude is testing out various soft armaments for his tiny plane!
More than anything, this video makes me want to buy a model A-10 of my own. I’m not too old for toys, right?
It would be great to see this thing go through some challenges, like an aeronautical obstacle course with rings to fly through and targets to shoot. Maybe ajw61185's channel will yield some more miniature air strikes soon.
They leave us with a disclaimer, which I’ll post here as well:
“While I believe this modification to be compliant with the AMA Safety Code, as I am not using pyrotechnics, or jettisoning anything that could harm people or property (Nerf blasters are after-all meant for children to play with, and comply with toy safety rules,) please exercise caution and responsibility if you’re attempting to build a similar creation. Never fly at/over people, and resist the temptation to launch balls at anything organic ;) Enjoy your brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt responsibly!”
Indeed.