DuoDrone
The DuoDrone is a flying machine designed by Beeper, based on SethBling's design. It uses four noteblocks: two of which control direction, and the other two stop the vehicle. It ueses sticky pistons, observers, and honey/slime blocks to move. There are two iterations: MK I and MK II.
History
Early Tests
Following the Barrel Incident at spawn and Beeper's failed attempt to remove it with a flying machine, he was inspired to start an air force in Southern Hollow.
YAPS Tower (Yoda Animal Protection Services) was chosen as the site for the aircraft launch pad due to its height and clearance of nearby obstacles. Test Flight #1 was a simple two-piston machine which successfully flew north to Terni and was dismantled due to its lack of a reverse feature. This proved that long-distance flights were not only possible but well within reach.
Test Flight #2 saw deployment of an experimental four-directional machine nicknamed "Multibird". After an initially successful launch heading east, the aircraft encountered problems when stopping or switching directions. It broke apart shortly after and the flight was aborted. Lessons were learned from this to not be overly ambitious with designs, but to iterate on previous success.
The First DuoDrone
Beeper went back to the drawing board and found a simpler two-directional design which seemed easy enough to control. The first drone was a north-south capable machine, and successfully flew to Terni, stopped, and returned to the launch pad with only minor hiccups. This was a glorious day for aviation as the groundwork was now firmly in place for long-haul travel.
Intercontinental Flights
A second drone was constructed facing in the east-west direction. It was found by looking at Dynmap that Southern Hollow and Cara Island were on roughly the same latitude, but separated by thousands of blocks. The stage was set for the server's first intercontinental flight. The drone set off to the west, passing many structures including Gamer Islands and various highways. Roughly 20-30 minutes later, following a near-miss with a building in the outskirts, the DuoDrone and Beeper arrived, achieving the ambition of distance flight. The drone made the return journey the next day and successfully returned to the launch pad.
Weeks later, another intercontinental flight was launched, this time heading southwards to Burzum, roughly the same distance away as Cara. Some passengers were picked up along the way as the aircraft passed over various builds along the way. The drone stopped west, but in sight, of the town and was returned the next day to SH.
MK II and A New City
It was found that by replacing slime blocks with honey, two additional seats could be installed onto the drone, becoming a four-seater aircraft. This was declared to be DuoDrone MK II, and the east-west drone was upgraded to this design.
Following the 1.16 update, DuoDrone technology has been moved to Alliance City. A hangar was constructed on the upper floors of Smoke Tower, with four MK II drones installed with automatic stopping barriers. Several flights have occurred from this site, most notably to Sky Temple City. The drones are capable of reaching new spawn and various other settlements in the new world.
There are plans to test more advanced aircraft in the future.