• Turn your iPhone into a WWII fighter? Yes, there's an app for that too

    Steve O'Hear

    Steve O’Hear is probably best known as a technology journalist, currently at TechCrunch where he focuses mainly on European startups, companies and products. He was previously co-founder and CEO of expertise platform Beepl where he helped the company navigate its first VC round, along with seeing the product through development, private alpha and a high profile public launch. In November... → Learn More

    Monday, January 11th, 2010

    pilot[UK] Self-employed ad man Sam Butterfield, who describes himself as “an ideas person”, has created possibly the world’s most pointless iPhone application iPhone Pilot.

    That said, with its ability to turn grown men into excited children, it may also be a work of pure genius.

    The app turns the iPhone itself into a WW2 fighter plane that you hold in your hand and fly around the room, accompanied by flying and shooting noises, and attachable paper wings.

    Check this out:

    Butterfield didn’t code the app himself but commissioned Dotank Studios to do the work out of his own pocket.

    Not only is the app a bastion of creativity – Mad Men’s Don Draper himself would be proud – but it targets a segment of the iPhone demographic that we’ve not seen before, if a little too openly.

    “So, get in touch with your inner idiot”, the ad man’s copy reads, “and let rip with iPhone Pilot”. It surely won’t be long before Butterfield’s work catches the attention of Cupertino, not just for its marketing prowess but what better proof that on the iPhone there literally is an app for everything.

    Naturally, iPhone Pilot has a social gaming element too, thanks to the app’s multiplayer capabilities. “Challenge someone to a dog fight. Even better, assemble a squadron of iPhone Pilots with your mates, and wage war on the squares in the office next door.” Squares, of course, don’t have iPhones so are likely to be defenseless.

    And it would be remiss of Butterfield not to have built in a viral component as well. He’s encouraging those who download the app to video their iPhone Pilot dog fights and upload them to YouTube. More genius.

    • http://footballunited.com will

      scramble Beat flight

      bandits at angels 2-zero, by Charlie’s desk

      tally ho chaps!

    • http://www.gamecreds.com Tim

      Freaking awesome :D
      I need one!

    • http://www.cdnpal.com Christopher

      Is he self employed or unemployed?

      I don’t think that was ever made fully clear?

      • http://www.greenstreet.net @PaulH

        the very first words in the article says self-employed…

    • http://www.austin-bankruptcylawyer.com/ Austin bankruptcy lawyer

      This has flash mob written all over it. An entire town square iphone dog fight.

    • http://www.skill-guru.com skill-guru

      One of the TC50 finalist was a guy from India who had demonstrated how you can turn iPhone into JoyStick. This applications looks to be build on same concept
      http://www.skill-guru.com/blog/2009/09/26/turn-your-iphone-into-joystick-imo-presents-the-application-at-tc50/

    • Ares

      Super awesome app!!!! All my inner idiots are jumping like mad. HELP!!!

    • FP

      BREAKING NEWS a french magazine exec (Gilles Fontaine – Challenges) just revealed the Iphone 4 is well underway and will start being sold around may …

      http://hightech.challenges.fr/actualites/20100111.CHA0466/un_nouvel_iphone_pour_le_mois_de_mai.html

      I think Apple is orchestrating those rumors to kill the nexus hype. Still good news that is!

    • millioniakid

      that is so awesome!! i want one! lol

    • shinyhat

      I’m not sure if this is genius or the stupidest thing I’ve seen all day or both. In any case, I’m wondering about what constitutes appropriate use of the office color printer…

    • http://www.coderkind.com/2010/01/11/turn-your-iphone-into-a-world-war-ii-fighter/ coderkind.com » Blog Archive » Turn your iPhone into a World War II fighter!

      [...] Genius application coded by those very clever people at Do Tank Studios; turn your iPhone into a fighter. [...]

    • http://www.sambutterfield.carbonmade.com sam butterfield

      Thanks for getting the idea people, reassuring to know i hadn’t gone mad when i came up with it. Props to dotank studios for making it work.
      Flashmob? – Battle of Britain in liverpool st station – if you know how to organise this, let me know. And please tell our american friends about PIlot…
      Over and out

      • dave

        Sam , you are a fu..ing genius man !

    • http://www.sambutterfield.carbonmade.com sam butterfield

      OH AND…prize for first person to upload an attack on Boris Johnson to you tube!

    • goo

      Inglourious basterds!

    • Jediskyflyer

      Alrighty then! so we breakout the fire button controls from this app and port it to a tongue switch, and we have got ourselves a wingsuit dogfight game! how accurate does it hit?…. does it log hits on the opponents phone? Would this work from 14,000 feet?.. oh yeah.. we will find out!

    • sam’sdad

      A mile-high son OK but never dreamt it could lead to this

    • http://@bikeyoga @bikeyoga

      Didn’t see the potential till i saw the demo.

      F’ing awesome! waiting for user gen vids!

      well done.

    • http://@bikeyoga @bikeyoga

      didn’t see the potential till i saw the demo.

      F’ing AWESOME! can’t wait till i see more user gen vids!

      • http://@bikeyoga @bikeyoga

        err. yep. double clicked it. fail.

        orrrr maybe the app is just that good that it needs repeating. eh?

        b?

        c?

    • http://www.derekscruggs.com Derek Scruggs

      He’s sell 10x as many if he comes out with an X-Wing Fighter version. I eagerly await my royalties on that idea.

      • http://@bikeyoga @bikeyoga

        royalties? um, so would lucas

    • @theagent

      This idea has augmented reality written all over it. I just had this conversation with the guys from AR Drone at CES. You could do something as simple as markers on the ground for strafing and bombing runs or get even more insane and go to Google maps for the satellite view of England, Germany etc.

    • Waldo

      “…created possibly the world’s most pointless iPhone application…”

      Sorry… but,in my opinion, nothing will replace Twitter.

    • abdelm

      Pointless.

      • SAM

        Oh come on, for 99 cents I’ll buy it… its just that I refuse to upgrade to OS 3.1.

        I still do the occasional hand-as-a-plane and mouth as engine noise when I’m alone… so this would make it even more cool. LOL.

    • boden

      Never underestimate inspired idiocy. Sam, well done sir, well done.

    • http://www.digitalcuppa.com/relive-those-dreams-of-being-a-fighter-pilot Relive those dreams of being a fighter pilot | DigitalCuppa

      [...] Via TechCruch [...]

    • billyw

      don’t lose your dinosaur.

    • facebook

      facebook.net Hacked & Defaced by Iranian Cyber Army

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