Although the sleek craft — reminiscent of the Return of the Jedi’s TIE Interceptor — made its first-ever screen appearance in the recently released The Last Jedi, it was actually shown off for the first time on an episode of the Star Wars Show back in July. That head start meant that Sripol had several months to work on his drone in order to get it ready to debut in time for the new movie’s release.
As you can probably imagine, it is not entirely straightforward to get the TIE Silencer up and running, due in no small part to its uneven, back-loaded weight distribution. That might be fine in the gravity-free expanse of a galaxy far, far away, but it proves something of a challenge here on boring old Earth. Still, watching Sripol pull off a barrel roll with his completed vehicle is enough to convince us that the time and effort involved in this homebrew project was 100 percent worth it.
This isn’t the first time we’ve covered an innovative project from Peter Sripol. This time last year, we wrote about his nifty underwater “wrist rockets,” which enabled him to propel himself through the waves like a human submarine courtesy of two T100 thrusters, a pair of wrist straps, and an Arduino-powered, belt-mounted unit. He’s also developed engineering projects ranging from an RC Lego airplane and DIY javelin missile to an enormous Zippo flamethrower.
Call us unashamed Star Wars geeks if you so wish, but his latest project might just be our favorite one so far.
