Watch a Rocket-Powered Katana Slice a Drone in Half

David Windestal rigged a Japanese samurai sword to be propelled by rocket in order to split a DJI Phantom drone in half—and we get to watch.

byMarco Margaritoff|
Watch a Rocket-Powered Katana Slice a Drone in Half
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David Windestal loves watching rocket-powered knives and swords zip through objects in the comforts of his backyard, where he engages in this do-it-yourself mischief with friends. Most recently, a DJI Phantom was the target of his rocket-fueled love of Samurai swords. According to David, however, this was very much based on the fact that the drone was already in pretty rough shape. Why not destroy it in a visually pleasing manner for us, and an adrenaline-rush of an afternoon for David?

Here's everything that was broken with the drone before a razor-sharp blade flew through its heart: "The camera, gimbal and video downlink didn't work. The GPS would get a position lock every 5 boot ups and had horrendous drift when it did lock. The battery life were (sic) about 5 minutes compared to the stock 20ish. The remote had been dropped in the past and the antenna was loose and one gimbal was almost unusable. This phantom would have been thrown away, instead the owner gave it to us so that we could use it for this project."

That's David defending the act of destroying what looks like a perfectly healthy drone. What better way to put it out of its misery than what you're about to see below? Check this out.

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Seeing the force of that rocket explosion propel the katana forward at high-speeds is thoroughly exciting. As you can see, the blade swiped cleanly through the Phantom, exposing the innards of this particular UAV to anyone who's never dared open their model.

Sometimes, drones can be used for good in other capacities than medicinal deliveries or inspecting broken equipment. Sometimes, it's good to get out into your yard, build something with friends, and create some mayhem - safely, of course. 

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