The Black Hornet is a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Norway and the UK have donated a bunch of these to Ukraine. They’re so tiny that they can go in and out of the enemy’s territory unnoticed.

Want to know the best part? You don’t need to be in the military to get your hands on one of these babies. You can build something similar right from your home. Read on for some more details on Ukraine's Black Hornets and a collection of similar DIY drones as inspiration for your next project.

Ukraine’s New Black Hornet Drones Background

Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, other European nations have been showing support to help its defense. Norway and Britain most recently jointly offered Ukraine 850 Black Hornet micro-drones as part of a UK-Norway program. With a total value of $9.3 million, the drones are smaller than a sparrow and will easily fit on one’s palm.

They are exclusive to the army and are only used by 19 NATO-allied countries for special operations and reconnaissance. The drones will allow Ukraine to keep an eye on Russia’s military activities, enabling it to better equip and prepare its defense.

In this guide, we'll explore a bunch of innovative DIY drones that are similar to Ukraine's Black Hornets that you can try building.

1. Voice-Controlled Arduino Drone

Drones are already cool and super-functional when they are flying. Now picture controlling them via voice commands. Incredibly easy, and futuristic. And you don’t just have to picture it, you can build it using the mini voice-controlled tricopter robot, as shown in this Instructables guide. It’s Arduino-based and maximizes Bluetooth to process voice commands. And as revolutionary as it sounds, it costs about $11. Here are some more Arduino radio projects you can build.

2. LEGO Drone With GoPro Camera

Like the Black Hornets, autonomous quadcopter drones are pretty innovative. These unmanned aerial vehicles are AI-powered to be completely autonomous. With a brain of their own, they can take off and land without human intervention, and complete tasks with just a few clicks here and there.

And you can build such a drone at home, but even cooler-looking, and fun to make because it has a LEGO twist, as this Instructables guide elaborates. With a camera equipped, you could add this drone to your essential movie making ingredients.

3. Ultra Budget Mini Quad

If you are a technophile yearning for a fantastic yet challenging project to make, this awesome mini quad project is for you. Check out the Instructables tutorial for the technical details, and the video above to see it in action.

4. DIY Smart Follow Me Drone With Camera

Bored and got a couple of old quadcopters and hexacopters sitting in your old tech stack? Reinvent one into a smart follow-me DIY drone. It’s equipped with an ATmega328 chip and other geeky components listed in the Instructables guide that enable it to discover and process GPS signals from your smartphone. As a result, it can follow you wherever you go, as long as you’ve got your phone. It also has an attached camera, meaning you can now record your videos hands-free.

5. Micro 105 FPV Quadcopter

FPV drones might not always be as minute as Ukraine’s Black Hornets, but they are almost on the same level of cool. FPV drones feature a camera attached to the front and are wired to transmit their view to a monitor—or, even better, a pair of goggles. This allows a first-person view of whatever the camera is seeing. Check out and build the homemade version in this Instructables post.

6. 3D Printed Nano Drone

Want to build a drone almost similar in size to the Black Hornet? Try making a nano-drone. Nano-drones are micro-sized manned vehicles also developed in Norway. Like Black Hornets, they are made for spying and can be camouflaged, which offers even better undetected surveillance.

While we can’t promise a military model, this Instructables guide features all the details you need to build a 3D-printed version. To make this project easy, check out these top frames to 3D print for your DIY drone.

7. Long Range FPV Quadcopter

What’s your favorite kind of view? Are you the kind of person who prefers cityscapes and will hike a 1000 ft high as long as you are guaranteed a perfect bird's-eye view of your favorite city? Or are you more into the natural-side of things and prefer to feast your eyes on scenic beach vistas, or dreamlike mountain panoramas?

Whichever category you fall into, building this long-range FPV quadcopter guarantees mystical aerial views of your scenery. If you like this project, you may well want to explore DIY space projects you can build yourself.

8. Ultimate PVC Quadcopter

Drones are sophisticated little gadgets which, as proven by the Black Hornet, can spy on forces as feared as the Russian army. Yet, once you fully understand their working concept, you can design one from nearly endless materials, including PVC pipes!

Don’t believe it? Check out the YouTube video above to see a PVC quadcopter in action. And you can build one too. Besides the PVC pipes, you will need quite a number of tools as this is a simple, yet quite sophisticated DIY drone. You’ll need components like a PVC cross connector, Lexan sheet, nylon standoffs, and a PVC coupler for the frame. For the power system, you’ll require:

• A LiPo battery voltage alarm
• Flight controller
• Heat shrink tubing
• Servo wires
• Bullet connectors

You’ll also need a comprehensive set of tools, but the resulting innovative drone will totally be worth the effort. Check out the step-by-step Instructables guide to complete this project easily.

Build a Black Hornet-Inspired DIY Drone Today

Remember when you were young and the media would constantly project how fantastic the future would be thanks to technology? Well, we are living in that future. It’s not up to its full potential yet, but we are headed in the right direction. We now have body-controlled flying suits and futuristic, sci-fi inspired innovations like the Black Hornet. Have fun building something close to Ukraine’s Black Hornets using the ideas above.