POWERUP 4.0 Smart Paper Airplane – Fly with Autopilot & Gyro Stability

This gets a 1000/10 on the fun scale.

I have never used the Invader fold that comes with the kit; I’ve always used POWERUP 4.0 with my original fold that I’ve been developing for years (see images; I’m a nerd.) Best place to fly for me has been an empty hotel ballroom, or an empty parking lot. (An empty ballpark or gymnasium might be good too.) My longest flight time is 7 minutes and 7 seconds, and it ended because the battery died. The flight time graph in the POWERUP app goes up to 8 minutes. Flight time probably depends on how draggy or efficient your fold is, and how you fly it (lots of climbs and tightly banked turns use a lot of thrust).

The flight controls on the phone are very easy, but might seem awkward at first. There are presets for which model you have. There are also three “Custom Plane” presets, which worked for me perfectly for me without any adjustments. To fly, you hold your thumb down and that unlocks the plane’s thrusters, and you slide up for more thrust, and slide down for less. Your thrust application changes your altitude. When you tilt your phone side to side, that is how your steer. (There is another control setting where you use two thumbs, but I don’t use that one…) There is an “auto pilot” system that tries to make corrections and aids in your flight (for example, if the nose goes too high, it will cut the thrusters so that the plane doesn’t stall). This can help your flight, but I find it can also cause odd oscillations to occur. You can try to dial in and tune your flight characteristics in the app (which is VERY COOL), but I honestly think it’s way easier to adjust your fold for better flight before editing the characteristics in the software… If you want less “auto pilot” intervention, you can turn on “Acro Mode” which, I think, turns a lot of that computer stuff off. I only fly in Acro Mode, and my plane flies amazingly.

As for frustrations… You CAN get really frustrated, especially when you’re testing a design and you only have 8 minutes of flight to test. It takes about 15-20 minutes to fully charge. I usually use that time to fold another spare wing, or to try a new fold. Just keep in mind that you can easily wait 20 minutes for a charge and then waste the entire charge crashing every 15 seconds…

Spare parts and accessories are easy to find, and they’re pretty cheap. I have the landing gear installed, which, at first, I thought was silly and made the plane look silly, but my folds last longer because the landings are much softer now (even though not perfect). I never take off from the ground though; I always throw it, as there isn’t much control when it’s on the ground.

A couple notes for success… Understand which ways the propellers rotate and which one goes on which side. There is a distinct left and right one; they are not the same! If you use tractor mode (where POWERUP 4.0 is installed with propellers in front) you’ll have to swap the left and right propellers to reverse the direction of thrust. POWERUP says tractor mode hasn’t been tested. I still think it’s a challenge, but be careful when trying to fly in this configuration. I feel I get MUCH better flight control with “Acro Mode” on. Lastly, never fly with your phone in “Low Power Mode” as I’ve found there to be way more Bluetooth dropouts (it’s generally a very stable connection though).

Have fun!!!

Full disclosure, he is also into aeronautics, rocketry, space-travel etc etc. But yeah, this did the trick on his birthday! The product works well, although it took us several tries to get it flying. Very quickly the model becomes a sort of iterative testing and experimenting platform, where the goal is to keep it flying the longest, or perhaps the highest. No accidents so far as we only fly in a nearby paddock, away from trees and roads. It crashes a lot, but we’ve had a lot of fun!

My son loved this but the tip broke off pretty quick. He’s devastated. We tried to super glue it but it won’t stay on.

**spoke with customer service. They do have a replacement kit and are sending a new one. Great costumer service.

Ich war erst skeptisch. Aber nach Aufbau wie in der Anleitung muss ich sagen, fliegt das Teil wirklich spitze.
Es hat eine automatische Lage und Wind-Korrektur, so dass der Flieger echt stabil in der Luft bleibt. Die Steuerung erfolgt über das _neigen_ des Handys. Das muss man dann erst mal heraus finden (oder die Anleitung lesen…).
Tolles kreatives und auch recht robustes Spielzeug

Words fall short to describe how much I love this product.
I bought this for my 7yo son with the goal of having him experiment and explore the science of flight and boy does this product help! The origami paper planes sent as part of the package fly great but my son has taken to trying the powerup on anything flat and light he can find at home : Cardboards, styrofoam, plastic and even a sheet of paper. Obviously not all of them fly but the process of building a new wing design and immediately being able to evaluate it is extremely effective in letting his imagination fly and creativity soar.

Durability and engineering: This product is engineered extremely well. We have crashed it easily more than a 100 times since we bought it 2 months ago, got it caught up in trees, roofs and rolled a skateboard over it on accident (we got lucky, don’t do this!) and it still works as expected. My son accidentally pulled off the antenna but I was able to find instructions on the website to solder it back on.

The product states that it is waterproof and I recommend you keep it away from the water. However, I can offer (atleast) one data point on its resilience to water damage. We had it stuck on the roof and it rained right after for 2 days straight. We thought it would be a complete loss. After the rain, we took it and kept it in front of a space heater overnight and were surprised to see it powered right up the day after. Obviously don’t go around drenching it in water but if you do, let it dry out completely before turning it back on.

Overall, as a dad to 2 young kids with an ever growing pile of old toys (our toy graveyard is massive), the powerup 4.0 offers an excellent science driven, super engaging outdoor activity. ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PRODUCT. I won’t think twice before ordering another one when/ if this ever stops working or we lose it.