A 136-Gram Rocket Drone That Launches Straight Up and Hits 67 Miles Per Hour

Max Imagination, a DIY enthusiast, worked really hard to develop the ESP-BLAST from a rather simple concept. This tiny drone weighs only 136 grams (with the battery!) and can reach speeds of up to 108 kilometers per hour during outdoor runs. Here’s the amazing part: Max built this entire thing from scratch, using only common tools and spare components lying around, to show that you can achieve some truly incredible performance from a device that fits perfectly in your palm.

Max took inspiration from the larger high-speed drones being created by teams in South Africa and Australia. He was determined to test whether he could pack that same level of speed into a tiny little bullet that could shoot vertically like a rocket, and it appears that he was successful. The ESP-BLAST’s frame is a sleek bullet shape that was manufactured in durable PETG plastic using an Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus 3D printer. The entire frame weights 40 grams and it features separate nose as well as tail parts, along with small protective cones around each motor to keep things secure.

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Four small 1104 brushless motors are spinning 2.5-inch tri-blade propellers over here, and eight-amp micro electronic speed controllers ensure that power gets where it needs to go. All wiring is done with very thin 30-gauge silicone cable. Then there’s this custom-built circuit board with the ESP32 microcontroller, an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, and even a teeny tiny GPS unit for tracking speed, all designed by Max himself in Flux software and built for less than $8.

The device is powered by a 3S 450mAh lithium-polymer battery that slips neatly into the tail part. You can fly at maximum speed for two minutes or slow down for eight minutes. In terms of price, you’re looking at around 155 dollars for the entire package, but that can be reduced to 110 dollars if you skip a few sensors.

Up front, there’s a motorized camera that can automatically tilt its lens when the drone transitions from straight-up launch mode to level forward flight, ensuring you never lose sight of anything. The first-person footage feeds into a tiny 5.8-gigahertz camera, which is connected to a screen that displays live speed, battery voltage, and the number of satellites lined up.

The control signal is transmitted using the ESP32’s built-in wireless signal, which has a range of roughly 200 meters. If you need a greater range, you can easily add a longer-range receiver later on. Max fine-tuned the flight control software in Betaflight version 10.10 until everything was perfect, eliminating any wobbles and ensuring that the drone could withstand a large amount of power without losing its cool. Early tests got it up to about 60 kilometers per hour, but with a little additional tuning, he was able to increase the speed to 108.

First, Max tested the drone indoors to ensure that it could hover steadily. Then it headed out to the wide field for some serious speed runs. The drone requires at least eight GPS satellites before it will allow you to arm it, after which it will just lift off vertically and level out as it moves horizontally. Once it reaches speeds of up to 100 km/h, the bullet shape simply flies through the air with surprising stability. However, if you push it over that point, you will notice some drift, which Max was able to fix with a little adjusting.
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