It doesn’t take a genius to know that a drone and a flamethrower combined is not a good news. Even so, you don’t expect a teen who had the history of retrofitting a handgun onto a drone to back off from such delightful project, don’t you? Yup. We are referring to 19 year old Austin Haughwout, a mechanical engineering student from Connecticut, who made the headline back in July with his handgun-equipped drone. This time, he made the news again with a fire-breathing drone, which he demoed ‘roasting’ turkey in a wooded area of his family’s backyard in a video posted on Youtube. Though, that was like more charring then roasting. To be honest, we doubt anyone would be digging a burnt turkey. Then again, who am I to say, right?
Anywho, flamethrowers are deemed too cruel even for wars and hence, the U.S. Department of Defense stopped using them after Vietnam War. However, there was no actual ban per se; Geneva Convention only forbids the use of incendiaries, which includes flamethrowers, against or near concentrations of civilians. That said, civilians in countries like U.S. can still utilize them for purposes such as clearing of vegetated land and thus Austin was able develop this rather horrifying fire-spewing flying machine. But Austin’s creation is not the first fire-breathing flying contraption; previously we have seen a RC flying dragon that’s also capable of spewing fire as it flies. But clearly, young Haughwout’s creation is much more deadly as, if the turkey was alive, it could attest to the fire power. Continue reading to catch the said video.
