Five hundred dollar drones now outmaneuver ten million dollar jets
Inventions
Mass-produced hobby electronics are evolving so fast that a basement-built device can now disable a multimillion-dollar aircraft using little more than a $30 computer chip.
The technological gap between a backyard enthusiast and a superpower’s air force has vanished. While a fifth-generation fighter jet like the F-35 takes over a decade to develop, DIY engineers are iterating on drone designs every three to six months. These creators use off-the-shelf components, such as the ESP32 chip, to build agile quadcopters that hit 100 miles per hour for the price of a high-end smartphone.