The 'Paper' Airplane to Rule Them All
The coolest “paper” airplane ever just soared to the top of our holiday gift wish list. Only it’s not really paper. It’s made from carbon fiber -- way tougher than wimpy pulp, but almost as light.

Meet the Carbon Flyer, the ultimate geeky tech toy. It’s a slick, sturdy carbon fiber video drone glider. Maybe even the app-controlled eye in the sky of your nerdiest aeronautical dreams.
Related: The Drone Industry Hates the Word 'Drone.' So, What's a Better Option?
The brains behind this featherweight flyer belong to Bret Gould and serial inventor Christopher Hawker. They both hang their hats at Hawker’s hot invention incubator Trident Design, LLC, the firm that hatched the cephalopod-inspired PowerSquid, a multi-dongle powerstrip that’s all about function over form. The Carbon Flyer smoothly combines both, but it’s all about the fun.
Fun tidbit, Trident also cooked up one of our fav food delivery devices, the Perfect Bacon Bowl. Mmm, bacon. They also created The Coolest cooler on Kickstarter. It raised a whopping record $13.3 million.
Related: It's a Bird. It's a Plane. No, It's a Flying Car (Finally)!
Hawker describes the long-range (80 yards line of sight, nearly the length of a football field) Bluetooth Carbon Flyer as “a toy to please our inner children.” Yeah, no kidding. He told TechCrunch that the iPhone and Android device-controlled gizmo uses “all of the coolest technology we could cram into it.” We’re talking high-power twin motors with differential thrust for optimal steering, a hot-swappable, USB-rechargeable 3.7-volt lithium polymer battery (to juice three-minute flights max, meh, not so awesome), bright LED night lights for nocturnal excursions, a tiny onboard camera for capturing high-res aerial video, and, well, you get the the picture.
Pre-ordering your own Carbon Flyer will put you back $99. Not bad, considering all the tech you get.
Related: This Man Used a Drone to Walk His Golden Retriever
For more Carbon Flyer tech specs than you probably need but totally want, check out the glider’s pic-packed Indiegogo campaign. Launched on November 25, it’s already glided past its $50,000 goal, raking in $80,481 so far.
To see this bad daddy take flight, check out this fun video:
Related: Yes, You Can Turn a Paper Airplane Into a Smartphone-Powered JetEntrepreneur Editors' Picks
-
These Co-Founders Are Using 'Quiet Confidence' to Flip the Script on Cutthroat Startup Culture and Make Their Mark on a $46 Billion Industry
-
My 7-Year-Old Daughter Started Selling Eggs. Here's What She Taught Me About Running a Startup.
-
Why You Need to Become an Inclusive Leader (and How to Do It)
-
Career Transitions You Can Make in Your 40s and 50s
-
Billionaire Naveen Jain Is an Expert at Disrupting Fields He Has No Experience In. His Secret Sauce for Building Multi-Million Dollar Companies? 'You Have to Come as Naive.'
-
4 Principles to Develop Next-Level Leadership at Your Company
-
This Filipino American Founder Is Disrupting the Beverage Aisle by Introducing New Flavors to the Crowded Bubbly Water Market