OK, what the heck is this? Kathy saw an advertisement in Newsday for a "Halloween Drone Show." I knew what it was instantly. The show was put on by the town across the harbor and if you don't live there you couldn't attend. But, we figured that if we were just across the harbor we would be able to see something. So we ended up parking at the beach where we have our Tuesday coffee and donuts, and had a great view of the show. There were between 75 and 100 drones, obviously computer controlled and flying in perfect formation, sometimes really close to each other. It was astounding to see. They all started out as a long line of lights on the far shore, and then suddenly they started flying up, one at a time like fireflies, until they were all in a giant diamond formation.
Then they started making shapes. They formed this ghost, but what you can't see is that half of the drones don't have their light on. Suddenly there were two ghosts overlapping and then flying away from each other! Then there was the Halloween Pumpkin Face, below.
And then when it was time to land, the drones all turned red and returned to the diamond formation, and then one by one they began to descend like fireflies. It was astounding to see! The presentation lasted about 15 minutes, because most drones only have enough battery power to fly for 20 minutes.
6 comments:
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
This is amazing! What a treat for you to watch on a dry Halloween night. Glad Kathy saw the write up in the paper. Thank you for sharing your photos.
Joan
WOW! Love this. Never heard about a drone show. This is incredible. So glad that Kathy saw this so you could both watch. Great way to enjoy Halloween. betsey
I can't imagine how so many drones were linked by a computer to perform this spectacular Halloween Drone Show! And you got three cool pics for the price of one trip to the beach!
Oops! I missed one. Four cool pics!
I did some searching about drone shows after doing my post, and read that a "small" drone show, might cost about $20,000. The technical details of how the drones are controlled is astounding. They use multiple frequencies to control the drones so any interference will not affect the flights, in addition to the flight plans being installed in each of the drones. It is incredibly complex. Each drone makes a check of itself, and reports any problems back to the controller before takeoff, and they can then replace that drone before the show starts!
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