A radio-controlled USS Enterprise. How does it fly? That was my first question after skimming the e-mail I got this morning from Hobby Media blogger Francesco Fondi, so I jumped straight to the video (you don’t need to watch all of it):
The answer is that, like a penguin, it flies underwater. Francesco tells us that “in Japan there is a new underground hobby for geeks who love to transform static kits in Radio controlled underwater spaceships”. While it won’t surprise you that in Japan there is a niche for every kind of nerd, the elegance of this kit mod is stunning.
The NCC-1701-A is built from a 1/350 scale off-the-shelf kit by a Japanese modeler named Starfleet Yokosuka. Instead of trying to put some kind of invisible helicopter blades on top, Yokosuka turned it into a remote controlled submarine. The real surprise is how space-like (TV-space, that is, not real space) the lighting is, and how elegantly the ship maneuvers under the water. We keep expecting to hear the whump of a Photon Torpedo hitting home, with the bonus that even the science-pedants could enjoy it without complaining about the lack of sound in space.
Star Trek USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-A e Space Battleship Yamato radiocomandata [Hobby Media. Thanks, Francesco!]
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