WATCH: These miniature replica fighter jets fly at 500 kilometers per hour

  • The miniature fighter jets are 1/4 scale replicas of the real deal
  • These aircraft are capable of staggering speeds up to 500 km/h (310 mph)
  • At $30,000, they aren’t cheap

Published on Jun 13, 2024 at 5:51 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson

Last updated on Jun 13, 2024 at 5:51 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

These miniature fighter jets are exact replicas of their full-size counterparts, just a quarter of the size. The replica airplanes can travel at speeds up to 500 km/h (310 mph), outpacing even the fastest supercars on the planet. They will also cost you a pretty penny if you fancy grabbing one – as they cost $30,000 each.

Don’t think that these are for the casual plane flyer either. If you should happen to crash, it’s probably going to get messy, as they are full of real jet fuel, and run incredibly hot.

In this video, Alex checks out these incredible 1/4 scale fighters, as well as looking at some of the other remote-controlled aircraft at Dubai-based club SkyHub RC.

Video transcription:

And look at this guys. What’s up? It’s Supercar Blondie here in Dubai. I have something super super cool for this video.

This right here is a scale replica of a fighter jet. Look at this. Oh man! This is exactly how this fighter jet looks in real life.

It’s just a 1 to 4 scale replica. So every single little detail is exactly how it would be on the actual plane. And we can move all of these parts as well, can’t we? This is Mansoor.

He’s the owner of this plane. Look at this. And then this as well.

Pilot’s ready. Great, come on over Mansoor. So these guys are part of a club here in Dubai called Sky Hub RC.

Mansoor owns this one. Ahmed owns that one. And what is this fighter jet in real life? Where is it from? It’s a Russian.

This is a Sukhoi 30 because it has a canard. This is what we call a canard. And the other, it’s a Sukhoi 27.

The only difference, I don’t have these in the other plane. Ah, okay, yes. But you do have missiles.

What we’re going to do is we’re going to race. So we’re going to take off down this airstrip and see who wins. What do you reckon? Who’s going to win? The winner, you take the plane or we take the car.

Oh, the stakes are high. Two for one. Okay, two for one.

Something like this goes for how much? How much money did you pay? $100,000. $100,000. So about $30,000.

And something like this can travel up to 500 kilometers an hour. It can fly that fast. But can it beat the McLaren on the ground? Let’s see.

Some of these planes can actually fire the rockets where we’re not able to do that today. But I’ll tell you something guys, these are like flying bombs. What’s happened is they’ve got the jet fuel here.

There’s real jet fuel. And the turbines are right here. So close to the fuel.

Oh, I can open that up. That’s cool. There we go.

Look. So how far back does the fuel come guys? How close is it? Oh, it’s this close. Five centimeters away.

So this thing could literally like, if you crash it. It’ll explode. This gets about 700 degrees Celsius.

So you can imagine 700 degrees right next to jet fuel. All right, let’s do this. It’s so loud.

This is insane. I’m racing like literally two jet planes right now. All right, let’s turn my engine on.

Mine’s not as loud as theirs. All right. Active.

All right. It’s in sport. Are we ready? I put my wing up.

How was that? Hey, that’s something crazy. Wow. That was awesome.

That was epic. And the two of you flying off together as well. That was so cool.

Wow. That was a good experience. That was so cool.

Wow. That’s what we do on the SupercarBlondie channel. Make sure you subscribe.

I’ve got to go and show you all the other coolest planes here. Let’s go. All right.

We’re here with Matteo and Duncan. Duncan is actually a world champion. And Matteo is a pilot in real life for a massive plane.

There you go. Wow. That is insane.

Are you going to show us what’s called a suicide spin? The propellers, guys, you can have a bit more fun with them. They’re like aerobatic planes. Yeah, that’s the G’s.

That’s the 20 G’s right there. Wow. That was amazing, Fergus.

What are we dealing with? This is obviously a helicopter. I can see that much. Yeah.

What’s special about it? So this helicopter is not something that’s like, you cannot fly inside, like with the maneuver I’m doing, like it goes really fast in all the directions. So I can make it fly inverted, the same way that I make it fly normal. Oh, okay, cool.

I’m going to start easy. Okay. What? Oh.

The way it’s like, we fly as low to the ground as possible. And sometimes you touch it. Yeah.

It’s only the blades that got ruined, right? Yeah. The blade is broken. The tail blade is broken.

So it’s like a $200 scratch that can be repaired in like 30 minutes. Okay. Do you need to pay for it or not? I got to show you guys this one.

This is an exact replica of the helicopter at Skydive Dubai. So the owner of this miniature helicopter actually took 1,200 photos of the original full-scale helicopter and then made this one. So this is accurate down to every single little detail.

Even this opens. So the little slider here, all these little details, you know, this is exactly the same. So you open this and you see here the turbine.

And then the fuel is housed under here in this section. And then you can open this little door here as well, which is cool. And then you want to see the pilot open this door.

And there he is looking a little bit stunned. You’re right. No.

Hello. Hi. So you close that off.

And this one, this one took about six months to build. The owner built it in Germany and then flew it over here in one piece. And it costs about 13,000 euros.

I love you guys. Thank you so much, especially to all of the pilots here today. You guys rock.

And a special thank you to Ludo. He arranged everything here today, so you can go and check him out here. That’s his handle.

Go give him some love. All right, guys. We’re out.

Love you.

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie

user

Ben got his start in journalism at Kennedy News and Media, writing stories for national newspapers, websites and magazines. Now working as a freelancer, he divides his time between teaching at News Associates and writing for news sites on all subjects.