Making a Christmas tree fly is 2016's wackiest use of a quadcopter

By Luke Dormehl Updated December 23, 2016

Flying Christmas Tree | Flite Test

From drones that can dive like birds to ones encased in giant flying hamster balls, we’ve seen our fair share of experimental unmanned aerial vehicles over the past 12 months.

One that we’ve not previously come across, however, is a quadcopter Christmas tree, which is exactly what YouTube channel Flite Test has created for its new festive-themed video.

As talented drone builders and pilots, the team at Flite Test has previously flown novelty drones such as a Star Wars-inspired RC Death Star. The sight of a flying fir tree mounted on a quadcopter may be their most surreal creation yet, though — and surely their least aerodynamic.

With that said, a lack of maneuverability, speed, and … well, just about anything else that would normally constitute a good quadcopter is more than balanced out by the sheer festive joy of the scene.

Things get even better at the end of the video when the team goes one step further than flying a plain fir tree by launching a fully bedecked Christmas tree, complete with tinsel and baubles, into the skies above Miller’s Christmas Tree Farm in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

We should note that, as original as a flying Christmas tree drone is, it’s not the only Yuletide UAV that’s popped up this December. Popular YouTube personality Casey Neistat recently had his own attempt at winning Christmas with a video depicting him dressed up as a snowboarding Santa who has eschewed the sleigh for a human-flying drone.

If this Christmas is anything like the last one, we can also expect a plethora of new drones to be found under people’s (presumably non-flying) Christmas trees. With that in mind, maybe we haven’t seen the last of the festive-themed quadcopter videos either.

Keep your eyes peeled: Santa and his reindeer may not be the only unidentified flying objects in the skies this weekend!

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I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…

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