The BladeRunner came preassembled.  Getting the helicopter out of th box was the most time consuming part of the setup. 

We were not sure how delicate the BladeRunner was so we took some care in cutting the tape and other anchor points around the BladeRunner.  We would suggest you do the same. 

Once removed from its foam protective shipping crate, the BladeRunner was basically ready for take off.  The BladeRunner has two top rotors that rotate in a counter direction to each other. The stable flight characteristics of the BladeRunner was attributed to this counter-rotation design.

The task of directing the left/right movement of the BladeRunner was the responsibility of the horizonally mounted rear rotor.

The remote control also does double duty as the charger for the BladeRunner's internal LithiumPolymer battery. The BladeRunner's internal battery came partially charged and we DID NOT have to charge it to fly it out of the box.  In fact, the instructions were very clear on not charging the unit before flying it for the first time.  You do need to have a 9V battery to power the remote control unit.

A little practice was all it took for us to get the BladeRunner off the ground.  With a little more practice, we were able to do a moderately successful hover about the office.  However, we did not heed the instructions and hovered a bit too close to the wall.  We got a first hand look at the "wall vacuum" effect!

We managed to fly it into just about all the walls without doing any serious damage to the helicopter.  We got about 5 minutes of flight time before the BladeRunner's internal battery needed to be recharged. 

In order to recharge the BladeRunner, you hook up the AC adapter to the remote control unit, hook the remote control unit's recharging cable to the socket on underside of the BladeRunner, and wait until the red LED on the remote control to stop blinking (about 20 minutes).

We need to practice our steering and other basic flight controls.  We also need to find a larger indoor space to fly this thing!  Come back in a week or so and check out our progress.  Hopefully we'll have videos by then.

What kid under the age of 90 would not be fascinated by helicopters... especially ones that you are SUPPOSED to fly indoors?  They are like dragonflies that you can control to buzz the cat.

Frank Otta at InterActiveToy sent us the AirTech BladeRunner.  The BladeRunner is a super lightweight remote controlled helicopter especially designed for indoor aerobatics.

There are copycat units on the market so be careful where you get yours.  You can find the genuine BladeRunner here.

Review Summary:

Initial Impression- Very Clever

Usability- Super Fun

Durability- Be Gentle, can take a hit

Price- about $100

NOTE:  We hope to have videos from our CVS VideoCam of the test flights soon.