As a follow-up to turning the classic Lego Solo Trainer set into a fully-functional RC plane, aerospace engineer Adam Woodworth is back with an even more impressive build: he somehow made this tiny 27-year-old Lego Space Shuttle actually fly.
Many of us probably remember set #1682, Space Shuttle Launch, released way back in 1990. After all, it carried so many of our Lego minifigures into imaginary orbit.
Adam rebuilds the entire set from scratch, but alas—he leaves out the details where he somehow managed to make the shuttle itself fly. Looking at his Instagram account, however, reveals that he most likely built a duplicate of the shuttle out of paper so that it was light enough to take off with just three tiny propellers on the underside.
Update, 10:09 a.m. EST/EDT: According to Adam, the Shuttle’s frame is made from one-millimeter foam and weighs somewhere around 2.5 grams. All of the tiny Lego studs on top were made by using a hole punch and then gluing each one in place.
[YouTube]