The idea of a remote-controlled, small hovering aircraft, harder to detect than a manned vehicle, probably sounded like science fiction not that long ago. Now, it's become a part of life that we all accept to be true. And it's not all military-coordinated drone strikes, but drones delivering Amazon packages or being sold as expensive Christmas presents to tech obsessives.
With that in mind, it's a little more difficult these days to surprise us with technological advancements. Saying that, there is one old device that is still pretty impressive to most of us: the flamethrower. It wasn't that long ago that Elon Musk was making waves on the internet by selling flamethrowers to his die-hard fans.
However, Musk missed a trick when he didn't think of selling drones with flamethrowers mounted on top...
Okay, well it's probably illegal to sell something that dangerous to a regular ol' citizen, but there really are some drones out there with this capability. Footage of one of them in action from back in 2017 has recently been making of the rounds, and you can see it showing off its fiery arsenal in the video below:
According to Gizmodo, these drones are actually used by an electronic power maintenance company in China. It may seem a tad excessive at first, but it turns out that flamethrowers are pretty handy for getting rid of any plastic bags or debris that are caught on high-voltage wires.
You can see some more footage of one of them in action in Xiangyang, China, below:
With tech like this being used for a fairly menial task, it's like we're one step closer to the future - though one a little less glamorous than sci-fi ever imagined.
