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Comment by JasonFruit | Hacker News Reader

We removed the engine from my control line model and made a much more dangerous device! We mounted three wheels on the edge of a Frisbee and mounted the engine vertically in the cut out center. Then we started it and let it uncontrollably bounce, fly, and spin around the driveway, scattering gravel, until it ran out of gas or quit running from sheer abuse.

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My dad made something like that, except not with a Frisbee. It had two helicopter blades, and a dowel sticking out opposite the engine for balance. It had a little ring at the center of it holding the other parts together. He'd launch it from a screwdriver through the ring.

And once he did, it was pretty random where it went. Once it just went horizontally at about ten-year-old-me's head height. I ducked under it and it kept going. Sometimes it didn't do that much. And once it flew up... hard telling now, maybe 50 or 100 feet, and traveled maybe 1/8 of a mile before it ran out of gas.

You could sort of steer its initial direction by slanting the screwdriver. After that, you had no control, not even a kill switch.

Fun. And danger.

I'm not sure that device qualifies, but I've often told my wife that I hate the farewell phrase, "Stay safe!" that's become so common lately. Sometimes you have to balance whether something is enough fun to justify the risk of death.

Well, the blades were wood, and not super sharp. I'm not sure it would have killed me. I'd sure regret getting hit by it, though.

There's always infection. Don't give up hope!

Wasn’t there a flying toy where an engine was mounted between two counter-rotating disks? (80s or before, possibly)

Wow. Way to bring me back. Looking at the link above I immediately recognized a similar toy that I had in the early 90's. it was of a similar design but with a small electric motor, and a stiff wire about 3ft long running to a control box that also had batteries. The UFO would hover. As I recall it was red and looked like a UFO.

If we're talking toys that don't exist anymore, anybody here ever have a water pressure rocket? You'd add water and then pressurize it with a hand pump. They'd go about 50 ft in the air I think. Once by accident I released a pressurized rocket in my parents kitchen leaving a nice dent in the ceiling.

I loved my water rocket! That thing was amazing. You can still get them, and it sounds like they're as impressive as they were.

I remember playing with one of these. I remember it went up and never came back down.

https://www.flyingdiscmuseum.com/novelty/multi-piece/h242871...

What an amazing site this is!

Yes, I had one, and it was awesome. The thing went high enough to disappear from view, then gyro’ed safely back to earth.

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