Float is an upcoming documentary about the world of indoor rubber powered model airplanes. After watching it and doing some reading online, I’ve learned that the people who compete in free flight duration aeronautics are a special breed. Imagine spending 40 years of your life building self-propelled airplanes that weigh as much as a paperclip but maintain altitude for over 30 minutes. Oh, and you’d like to compete with others who do the same thing? Just catch the next flight to Serbia.

Current designs of these airplanes can fly for over 30 minutes on a single wound rubber motor, and the world record for time aloft is over one hour. These planes fly indoors, in large open spaces such as sporting arenas and aircraft and blimp hangers. The majority of participants in this hobby are over the age of 50, and the hobby itself is aging. As the digital age envelopes the younger generations, this hobby is becoming a lost art. The goal of FLOAT is to document the hobby in its current state, and most importantly bring much needed attention and an injection of new and excited participants to help perpetuate this beautiful hobby.

According to the producers the final release date is still to be determined. As the interest in model airplanes has waned, so have the sporadic competitions from which footage can be shot, so keep an eye out at film festivals in a year or so. You can learn more about Float on their Kickstarter page. (thnx, tim!)

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