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Connecticut Teen Builds Flame-Throwing Drone and It’s as Scary as It Sounds

Start saving up for that anti-drone missile battery somebody’s bound to patent, as videos of weaponized UAVs are starting to pile up on the Internet. Not that we weren’t expecting it.
Fire-spitting drone 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
To be fair, the only previous example we can think of is that handgun-equipped drone remotely firing shots in the woods while flying. That video showed up this summer and the hardware featured in it belonged to the same guy as this fire-spitting dragon.

His name is Austin Haughwout, and he lives somewhere in Connecticut. You don’t need an address to find him, just follow the scorched earth. Needless to say, he’s a drone enthusiast and the videos of his concoctions seem to be sponsored by HobbyKing.com, a place where most of the parts used in the applied modifications come from.

Following his first video, Austin was the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration investigation that was later turned over to local authorities. However, the investigation ended up with no charges being pressed, so Austin was free to go back into his shed and come up with something even better.

And it’s fair to say he did. If that handgun-toting flying robot used a smaller, four-rotor platform, this pillbox nightmare uses no less than eight rotors to support the extra weight. And there’s plenty of it, the incendiary rig coming with a large fuel tank and a full-sized blowtorch for igniting the flammable fluid.

Austin doesn’t give any technical details on the performances of his creation, but the video is long enough to get a good idea of the drone’s destructive capabilities. The video is titled “Roasting the Holiday Turkey” (which explains all the related videos showing friendly housewives and their delicious recipes), but the fact that there’s a bird’s carcass in there could easily go unnoticed as flames are flying all over the place. Which reminds us: shooting a flame thrower in the woods next to your house might not be the best idea, Austin.

Since, technically, there is no law forbidding civilians from mounting weapons on their drones, this new stunt of his shouldn’t bring Austin any new problems with the officials. Still, just because you can make a weaponized drone, that doesn’t mean there aren’t laws that prevent you from using it.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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