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The View From Inside A Fireworks Show

Posted by Unknown on from the things-that-go-boom dept.

kdataman (1687444) writes "There is a breathtaking video on Youtube of someone flying a quadcopter around and through a professional fireworks display. Of course, it was an illegal and dangerous thing to do. It also may inspire someone else to do something even more dangerous. But even so, I have watched it 4 times and get goosebumps every time. An article in Forbes says that unit is a DJI Phantom 2 with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver camera. The fireworks are in West Palm Beach, Florida."

5 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Illegal and Dangerous? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why on Earth did TFA call it 'illegal and dangerous'?

    It's only dangerous to the drone. There are no humans up there to crash into.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Illegal and Dangerous? by SuperTechnoNerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Read about the new ridiculous rules the FAA imposed about drones.. Then you will understand.
      Don't you know we are living in a time when someone does something cool, it is automatically illegal?

    2. Re:Illegal and Dangerous? by robbak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Professional fireworks are mortar-fired shells, not rockets that can go off-course if nudged. So if a shell hit the drone on the way up, it would smash straight through it and keep on going. There is not enough mass in a drone, and a drone is not solid enough, to deflect the solid mass of a firework shell travelling at speed. It might not quite reach the same height by a few meters, or might end up a couple of feet off target, but neither of these things would matter.

      And if the drone is up at altitude where the shells explode, then there is even less speed involved. The shell has reached it's height - so what if it taps a drone before detonating.

      There is also whole lot of sky, and both shells and drones are small. The chance of the two coming together is practically nil.

      Amazing pictures captured with zero risk. Images from a drone up there amongst it all should be a permanent feature of firework presentations.

      --
      Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
  2. Absolutely Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand the negative comments here. This is using technology to get a viewpoint of something in a way that a few years previously would have been impossible. Love it.

  3. Re:Idiotic by Dins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this idiotic? Unless you're talking about the potential idiocy of wasting all that money on a drone and a Gopro camera potentially blown up by fireworks. This was filmed over water. Nobody was in danger except the drone owner's bank account. (And maybe the one in a million chance of the drone falling on the odd boater...)