Meet Nimbus, the Indestructible Racing Drone

Crowdfunding and drones have a very mixed relationship. Take the recent burst bubble of the Lily Drone. Despite raising over 30 million dollars, the company had to close down amid claims that what it was offering simply couldn’t stand up to what the reality would turn out like. Needless to say, it’s not going to stop other ambitious startups from seeking funds to make their dreams come true.

This month a new drone startup has launched a campaign in a bid to fund the production of its new racing drone. Let’s take a closer look at Nimbus, from Aerodyne RC. This startup is based in St Petersburg, Russia, and is offering a new kind of racing drone… The indestructible kind. Nimbus relies on a fully carbon fiber monocoque shell. You might have heard someone who knows something about physics talking about how egg shells are impossible to crush as long as the force goes into a certain area of the shell (I’m not an expert) – well this drone is like an egg on steroids.

Plenty of drone racers will know the frustration that comes with the inevitable crashes during competition and general flying. Your drone is usually left in bits, meaning you’ll have to take time out to repair it or have a backup or two with you. Nimbus has been designed to remove that annoyance and simply get back up again every time it should be knocked out.

All electronic components of Nimbus drone, camera, and battery, are placed in the enclosed body and protected from the environment, as you can see from the charming footage above in which an angry Russian man attempts to crush it with a truck.

For a full breakdown of the Nimbus’ specs, click here.

Nimbus has been in development for the last two years, and its creators say that it can hit 100mph. At the moment it’s being sold as part of the company’s crowdfunding campaign in a BNF (Bind and Fly) pack, which assumes that the buyer already has a radio to use with the drone:

This pack will set you back $490 from the Nimbus crowdfunding page on IndieGoGo. As usual, we’re not saying you should go ahead and put your money where our mouth is – but we certainly think it’s an interesting concept that could be worth keeping an eye on – especially is you’re a drone racing pilot sick of picking up the pieces of your trashed drones after every event!

There’s also an independent review of the carbon fiber frame in case you’re interested: