CitizenCon 2948 - The Call of a Dragonfly

The Brief? “A full size dragonfly. An immersive experience.” We responded “Something people can climb onto? Something they can sit on? Feel the roar of the engines? Hear the lasers firing? Yellowjacket?” Yessss!

The Process

JR took to the PC to redraw the model into something we could cut, no small task with a model as complex as the Dragonfly. Each element needed to be separated out and re-drawn to make it possible to mill from solid wood. There was also the additional challenge of making sure that all of the component pieces and metal frame fitted into crates that should be airfreighted to the US.

Meanwhile I took to organising space to build this beast – except it was too late – all of our usual workshop space was booked out so our own little workshop expanded – into the rest of our house.

The Tech

Cue JR and our pi guy StevenTheGeek to get those screens and thrusters working and huge thanks to Darren Lambourne & Graham Philipson at CIG for their help on the sound.

The Build

Cue the most insane 3d jigsaw ever, hundreds of pieces cut from dozens of sheets of high-grade birch ply over weeks of milling to slowly build up each component of the bike. We cut and we sanded. Then we cut and we sanded some more and she started to take shape.

All that was left was to wrap her component pieces for her journey and off the crates went on their maiden voyage until we saw them in Austin.

The Trip

We’re used to travelling with our truck so it was a tense couple of weeks as the Dragonfly took her solo flight across the pond. We didn't see her for another 3 weeks until we unpacked her in Austin to put her together for you to enjoy her at CitizenCon

We hope you enjoy her – look after her ATX.