500 Intel Drones To Replace Fireworks Above Travis Air Force Base For Fourth of July (techcrunch.com)

The Fourth of July is a little different today at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. From a report: Instead of fireworks, 500 Intel Shooting Star drones will take to the sky to perform an aerial routine in honor of the holiday and the base's 75th anniversary. These are the same drones that preformed at Disney World, the Super Bowl and the Olympics. One person controls the fleet of drones thanks to a sophisticated control platform that pre-plans the route of each drone. Intel engineers told me that the system can control an unlimited amount of drones. In the version I saw, the drones used GPS to stay in place and the drones lacked any collision detection sensors.

Comments

Nice Once, But Ultimately Boring

[Bruce Perens]

I saw the Intel drone show at Bellagio during CES, twice. It's nice to see for the first time, when one has never seen a drone show. But it's ultimately just 500 color LEDs in the sky and not nearly as visually exciting as a fireworks show. To have it in addition to fireworks makes sense. Replacing the fireworks show? There will be some disappointed kids.