In the late 1800s, carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden building toys in his Billund, Denmark workshop. With growing success, Ole expanded his production, and by 1934, he came up with a new name for his company. He named the company Lego, taken from the Danish words leg godt, which means “play well.” Over the next few decades, Lego underwent several iterations, transitioning from wood to plastic and eventually branching out to a larger European market. By the 1960s, Lego’s concept of using simple connecting building blocks for unlimited creative play had spread throughout Europe and North America.

Today, Lego building kits are as popular as ever. They are sold in more than 130 countries and have continued to inspire children and adults alike to tap into their playful, creative sides. But for some, the idea of using Legos has gone beyond play and inspired them to create unique businesses utilizing the simple brilliance of Lego blocks. In 2012, Ed Scott, a software developer and designer, was inspired to use Legos to build a drone. At this time, drones were still primarily related to military usage and a small hobby niche. There were still limited options for drone hobbyists to work with. Working with his kids and their Lego bricks, Ed got to work building what would become the first-ever autonomous flying drone made entirely from Legos.

Ed and his kids built the frame with 117 Legos and secured it with Goop Glue. He then attached off-the-shelf parts from a local hobby store to make the drone fly, complemented with a flight controller. When the drone was ready, Ed and his kids headed outside for a test flight. “The project was not only beyond fun,” Ed said, “it was extremely educational for the kids and the entire family.” Wanting to share the experience, Ed uploaded the video from the flight test to YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 90,000 times.

Throughout the process, Ed met Nick Margarone, who was also an avid drone hobbyist. Nick encouraged Ed to further develop his Lego drone idea into a kit for others. The two set up a Kickstarter fundraiser, and soon thereafter, Brick Drones was launched out of Tampa, FL. With a 3D-printed motor mount and improved software options, Brick Drones now offers a range of DIY drone kits with bases built entirely from Legos. Purchasers can get a complete kit or just the motor mount to be used with Legos they already have at home.

“I think anything is possible,” Nick said. “You just got to create it, think up the idea, and you can make it. That’s what we did with our motor mounts and our Lego design.” Around the same time, Amir Hirsch and Robb Walters came up with a similar idea to use Legos to make drones. Amir and Robb began a project to develop small drones with inexpensive technology, with funding through Lemons Labs, a San Francisco-based hardware venture fund. In 2015, after countless mistakes, they launched Flybrix.

Flybrix, like Brick Drones, uses Lego blocks to build a drone base along with minimal-cost electronics. The primary difference between the two companies is that Flybrix is geared more towards a STEM educational platform, while Brick Drones is more for the drone hobbyist. Flybrix keeps things simple in the kits they provide: a set of Legos, wired propellers, a circuit board, and a battery. These kits are meant to be tinkered with and easily reassembled when crashed, an integral part of learning the dynamics of drones and engineering.

According to their website, “Flybrix aspires to find the perfect balance between fun, complexity, and depth to help motivated kids discover robotics.” The website goes on to outline the company’s beliefs, stating, “Play is the best way to learn, no matter how much you know. Trial and error experiments are the key to creative problem solving. Learning about drones should be safe and approachable. Open-source development ultimately leads to better products.”

Ole Kirk Christiansen passed away before having the chance to see the lasting impact his Legos would have on the world. There are an estimated 400 billion Lego bricks spread throughout homes around the world. Legos continue to inspire creativity in people of all ages. Neither Brick Drones nor Flybrix has any formal partnership with the Lego company. However, their utilization of Legos for their drone platforms is a testament to the ingenuity of a product that was conceived almost 100 years ago.

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