Intel launched its maiden venture in the commercial drone market earlier last week with the Falcon 8+ drone. While anticipation built around the launch was expectedly high, the chip giant made it to the headlines around the same time for another reason.
The US-based company broke its own record last week by simultaneously flying 500 of its Shooting Star drones, all controlled by the same operator. While the Falcon marked Intel’s debut in the rapidly expanding worldwide consumer drone market, its Shooting Star drones were recently allowed by the FAA to be flown for sports teams, corporates, cities, amusement parks, and special occasions.
Lena Kuhlman, Guinness World Records adjudicator, was present at the venue to witness the 500 tiny drones flying in formation to first “write” ‘500’, before changing the formation to “draw” a multicolored Intel logo.
Obviously, this spectacular display of coordination would be hard to pull off had there been 500 operators to operate each individual drone. Therefore, the company turned to only one operator who came equipped with the right combination of software, and a laptop.
“It demonstrates how a large fleet of drones can communicate and complete complex tasks,” said Natalie Cheung, drone light show business director for the UAV Group at Intel.
The UAV light show system was designed by Intel itself and had prior approval from the FAA in the US.
Late last year, Intel set a Guinness World Records by organizing a 100 drone light show just outside Hamburg, Germany.