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.

got this for my dad who is an avid RC pilot. Its winter and its cold, thought he would be able to fly this indoors. He said it works pretty good but too fast for inside the house. He is going to take it to the gym for indoor fly day and see how it does then.

The electronics and the iPhone app are first rate. The balsa wood kit was a little challenging in spots such as having to break the wing in half to obtain the proper wing angle. I was able to complete the balsa wood plane in about an hour and a half. Beware that the kit does not include the necessary superglue or a sanding block despite the fact that the ad says it does. I contacted the company and they apologized for the misleading ad, but did not offer any compensation. The accessories kit is largely worthless in that there is no explanation for how to use any of the parts and they are largely unnecessary to complete the balsa wood plane. The paper airplane had good video directions I searched but could not locate any such instructions for the balsa wood plane The plane was fun with these caveats. I have built many balsa wood planes so I did have experience. A child would require some help.

Bien empacado, excelente calidad, entregado en tiempo establecido, el kit se ve mejor físicamente ,altamente recomendado.

Purchased this in July – there was an initial learning curve especially with turns and acceleration. Once you practice with few test flights you get a hang of it. My kid has tried 3 of the built in designs and it works great. I also like their tech support and customer service approach, I had few questions and concerns, these were promptly answered by their team. This is an excellent STEM toy, to teach kids aerodynamics, ailerons etc. Its a good stepping stone before progressing to RC airplanes if you are interested in that space.

Pros.
Excellent design and aerodynamics
instant setup and pairing on app
Decent flying time
Keeps score of flight data

Cons.
if using indoors would suggest carpeted area
learning curve – though not difficult will need effort
don’t miss the carbon rod stabilizer

Après un mois d’utilisation, le Powerup 4.0 fonctionne toujours très bien, c’est très amusant et mon fils de 10 ans s’éclate avec. Le pilotage est aisé. Effectivement, il ne faut pas trop de vent, un peu d’espace (terrain de foot ou pairie). Petit bémol : la batterie s’épuise vite. Mais bonne nouvelle, elle se recharge aussi très vite avec une petite batterie externe. Plusieurs modèles d’avion sont à tester, avec pour chacun les explications de fabrication (en Anglais), ce qui varie un peu les séances de vol. Très sympa, je recommande.

It’s pretty good, I can’t get it to work but it’s just a skill issue.😭💀

I am 9y old and I love the powerup 4.0. It is easy to control and it helps me to learn aerodynamics.
There are different attachments you can use for 4.0 to make it even more fun.
Chris K.

Après un mois d’utilisation, le Powerup 4.0 fonctionne toujours très bien, c’est très amusant et mon fils de 10 ans s’éclate avec. Le pilotage est aisé. Effectivement, il ne faut pas trop de vent, un peu d’espace (terrain de foot ou pairie). Petit bémol : la batterie s’épuise vite. Mais bonne nouvelle, elle se recharge aussi très vite avec une petite batterie externe. Plusieurs modèles d’avion sont à tester, avec pour chacun les explications de fabrication (en Anglais), ce qui varie un peu les séances de vol. Très sympa, je recommande.

It’s pretty good, I can’t get it to work but it’s just a skill issue.😭💀

Tolles Ding.
Als erstes ging es ans Falten. Das YouTube Video geschaut, manchmal war es etwas schnell, aber nach ein paar Malen, war der Flieger gefaltet.
Flugwerk an das usb- Ladegerät. Papierflieger einjustiert, App heruntergeladen und raus aufs Feld.
Der Flieger ist wirklich sehr schnell und fas Fliehen braucht doch mehr Geschick als gedacht, aber der Spaßfaktor ist definitiv da.
Das wird nicht der letzte Flieger sein, den wir kaufen. Der Bruder hat schon großes Interesse bekundet. Das liegt auch im Preisbereich für ein Geburtstagsgeschenk für Freunde.
Definitiv eine Empfehlung. 👍🏼

I definitely think this is the best kit to buy from power up. It has you actually build an airplane that covers making an airfoil design in the wing and making dihedial joint for stability of the airplane. Its a great stem project for kids who can grasp the concepts and then get to enjoy the flight achieved.
I will warn people though that you need a lot more space than you think you do. I had lost one power up before in a tree when it got pushed back in light light winds and couldnt make a successful flight back. Almost this one once when controls stoped responding and landed in someones yard. I was using a football field, but the plane flies fast and distance is hard to approximate when high up and the glide the plane has even without power input . But i obviously bought a second one since its such a joy to fly and yhe ability to fly it with other paper airplanes or aircraft you create makes the possibilities endless. Fantastic product overall thats a joy to use 🙂

I bought PowerUp v1 many years ago for my son. We were disappointed in its performance as all it seemed to do was send the plane into a nose dive after ten feet. However, I like that the inventor has constantly made improvements and didn’t give up fine-tuning his creation. If he didn’t give up, I didn’t want to give up either. I feel like v4 gets it right. It’s an easy-to-use upgrade to the traditional paper airplane.

Creating the plane and pairing it with the app on a tablet was simple enough. Launching is a two-person operation — one to throw and the other to control. Make sure you have plenty of open space because this plane moves fast. My boys didn’t have a lot of control over the plane, but it stayed in the air doing loops and spins for over a minute which is an eternity to a child. They thought the plane was going to just be an accelerated paper airplane. They were excited to see it stay in the air and do acrobatics.

Unfortunately, the battery only has a ten-minute lifespan. That’s understandable given its size. But it also means you need to be prepared for all the fun and excitement to be short-lived before it needs to charge. Also, don’t expect to have the fine-grained control you would have from a drone or more expensive RC airplane. But it’s a fun way for kids to create and test different designs and learn about experimentation.

I’ve only done a few flights and so far nothing has broken.

I have a bit of time off work, and wanted to buy myself a new toy to have some fun with. I love to tinker, so this seemed perfect.

Once I got a decent plane folded and mounted, it ended up being the most fun I’ve had for ages! I was itching to go again after I had run out of battery, but I was running out of daylight as well. It had to wait until the next day. Today is day four, and I’ve had it out multiple times every day. It’s quite exciting to see your plane continue flying on beyond what a paper plane should, and very cool to see it turn with a twist of the wrist. It has attracted a few interested spectators too, who seem equally impressed.

The only downside is it is coming into winter, and the grass is wet. So, before a session is over, my plane is basically trashed. I’ve folded up a few spares now, so I can keep going but I’m keen to build one out of something more durable (balsa?).

It still feels like a bit of an extravagance to spend so much on motorising a paper aeroplane, but now that I’ve tried it, I have no regrets. I’ll definitely be getting enough enjoyment out of it to warrant the expense.