Chainsaw attached to drone and flown around in terrifying video footage

The chainsaw drone doesn’t seem to be the ultimate killing machine just yet — getting foiled by a tree and a set of balloons

Finnish filmmakers have attached a chainsaw to a drone and flown the assembled killing machine around.

The video happily describes itself as showing a “KILLER DRONE!”, and is the latest in a run of dangerous drones. Those have also included drones with guns attached, meaning that they can be flown and remotely fired.

Some of those more terrifying videos have led to calls for the flying drones to be banned. While they are largely used for carrying cameras at the moment, the videos also show how the same technology could be used to carry around potentially lethal weapons.

The new machine is based on the DJI S1000, which has eight blades sticking out of its side and is meant to be especially customisable. Its makers have used that customisation to add the drone on the machine’s bottom, allowing it to be swung around and used as a weapon.

The footage — some of which is taken from a camera mounted onto the killer drone’s body — shows it being used to destroy snowmen and chop down trees. But it also shows how homemade drone weapons can easily run into problems — it appears not to have the power to get the chainsaw through a tree trunk, and ends up destroyed by a set of balloons.

The drone’s Achilles heel is remarkably similar to the same tools that are being used to take down drones. Though the flying machines are agile and can often move out of the way of most ways of taking them down, some have proposed using large nets that can be shot at the machines and stop their rotors from spinning.