Found footage: Fly an RC plane? There's an iPhone app for that

We're supposed to hear more about the AR.Drone at E3 in a few weeks, but you may not have to wait that long -- Flypad is an app coming soon to the App Store that purports to let you fly any RC-controlled plane with an iPhone, just by connecting the iPhone's audio out signal up to an adapter. The iPhone can even be connected directly to a PC with the use of special RC simulation software, and from there you can use the dual-joystick setup to control any other games or software.

It's not an all-in-one solution like the AR.Drone (and the controller is just that, no video or special AR included). But if you already have a plane and a transmitter that's compatible with this setup, the app could be a cheaper way to use your iPhone as a controller. No price yet, but the app is under Apple's review right now.

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Source: http://shingle.dy.fi/

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We're supposed to hear more about the AR.Drone at E3 in a few weeks, but you may not have to wait that long -- Flypad is an app coming...

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tomek13m

If you like to see lots of cool RC planes take a look at the 'iRate RC Planes' iphone application. I've downloaded it last week and I just love it!
Here the link: itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irate-rc-planes/id374153671?mt=8
BTW: there's also a pro version for it, bought it yesterday...

August 26 2010 at 1:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mikko Kutilainen

FlyPad is now available on the App Store for 4.99USD: http://bit.ly/a4ssZJ
Enjoy!

June 26 2010 at 11:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Noah

Actually, a touch-screen is MORE precise than a joystick.

June 11 2010 at 9:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

oshawapilot

As someone who flies RC planes and Helis (when not flying the real thing) I can honestly say that this would NOT be functional for flying anything other then perhaps a very forgiving trainer aircraft...and not for a heli whatsoever.

Tactile feedback and precision is important for anything with moderate performance with RC planes (a split second slip on something like the iPhone controller would result in a wreck) and for helicopters it's ESSENTIAL as you simply don't have time to fumble with touch-screen controls and still effectively maintain control.

Nice proof of concept and perhaps cool for the simulator program, but of limited use for real life IMHO.

June 06 2010 at 11:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hans

What is the flying game on the computer ? It looks awesome!

June 06 2010 at 9:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Hans's comment

Andrewlcox1

I am pretty sure this is it.

http://www.realflight.com/new/basic.html#

I tried it once at a hobby shop and it worked pretty good. Sure beats crashing an expensive model.

Andy

June 07 2010 at 12:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

[[dbalieiro]]

#awesome [;)]

June 06 2010 at 7:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply