We love our flying RC gadgets. However, a trend to make them micro seems to be proving popular. It means they're better scaled for indoor flying and are often cheaper than their bigger counterparts, plus there's just something cool about nano tech. So we were excited when we received the smallest RC helicopter in the world. It even holds a Guinness World Record. It's from Silverlit and it goes by the name Nano Falcon.

Design & Durability

It really is small, it could almost be mistaken as a flying insect as demonstrated by a member of the studio placing it in the palm of their hand. It weighs a minuscule 11g, that's less than half a packet of crisps, and measures 8.11cm in length, 2.24cm in width and 5.09cm in height. Its exterior body is primarily plastic, but appears to have an internal metal frame, and from testing the Nano Falcon quite a lot, its construction fairs well when being smashed into walls and falling mid-air onto hard surfaces! The helicopter is available in a blue/white, yellow/blue, orange/silver and the last variant, which is the one we have, is a seasonal red with snowflake decals.

Flying

Being small could mislead you into thinking this might fly like a gusty leaf. This is far from the case, it flies with precise nifty accuracy. The most noticeable element of its smaller style is that it takes longer to slow down when compared to something like the Silverlit Spy Cam II Helicopter. But this is quickly learnt, and steering, hovering and thrashing it out, all give a feeling of confident control, for which we definitely have to thank the gyroscope as it assists the overall stability. Taking off on a flat surface can be a little tricky as the helicopter can easily blow itself over, sometimes it's easier to build up throttle and launch mid-air. Nevertheless, this is a helicopter you can put in the hands of a child and they will quickly learn how to control it, but without the weight of destruction other helicopters inflict while getting to grips with them. So this may be a popular choice for parents as it takes up little airspace too.

Controller

The three channel I/R controller to fit the theme is also miniaturised. The layout of controls is straightforward to understand and even though the controller is tiny, our regular sized hands felt it wasn't uncomfortable to hold; bigger hands may find it cumbersome to use though. The left joystick trigger controls the throttle, beside this is a button to turn on and off a rather pointless and dim helicopter on board LED light, the right 360 degree joystick steers the Nano Falcon and underneath this are the trim adjustment buttons. Because the helicopter uses infrared technology, the Silverlit Nano Falcon won't fly outdoors with much accuracy due to the sunlight distracting the signal. So it's strictly an indoor flyer, which it is probably better suited for as you could easily lose the Nano Flacon in bushes or crevices.

Charging & Battery Life

The controller uses AA batteries which aren't included. The power from the batteries can charge the Silverlit Nano Falcon through the controller, but we always charge our RC helicopters from the mains electricity via a USB cable so we don't have to replace the batteries in the controller so often. The Nano Falcon sports around ten minutes of battery life; which for such a tiny RC helicopter is surprisingly long and even rivals exceedingly bigger RC helicopters.

Overall

We've been slightly mesmerised by the Silverlit Nano Falcon. It's very nice to see that Silverlit haven't put together a flaky flying miniature RC helicopter, just so they can claim it's the smallest in the world. Instead they've put together an easy and highly capable flight machine that suits an indoor environment brilliantly.