Intel Shooting Star Drone is designed for light shows

Intel started with its new drone technology at the beginning of the year and by May it had put on its second Drone 100 light show in Palm Springs. Intel has ramped up its drone program and in October it unveiled the Falcon 8+ drone aimed at commercial applications. Today Intel has officially announced its next drone called the Intel Shooting Star Drone and it is made specifically for light shows.

Intel used a fleet of Shooting Star drones in Germany to set a world record for having the most UAVs in the air at the same time. In that record setting event there were 500 Shooting Star drones in the sky at on time, massively outdoing the 200 drones used in the Palm Springs light show. Having 500 drones in the air allowed Intel to grab the Guinness World Record for UAVs in the air at once.

The Shooting Star drone is the first drone made just for light shows and has a light-weight construction with "virtually limitless color combinations" according to Intel. Intel has also worked with the FAA to get a Part 107 Waiver to fly as a fleet with one pilot at night in the US. Intel says that it will be using the Shooting Star drones publicly soon.

The Shooting Star drone is a quadcopter with encased rotors. It measures 384 x 384 x 93mm and has a 6-inch rotor diameter. Maximum takeoff weight is 280g and flight time is up to 20 minutes. Maximum range is 1.5km. The drones can fly in wind speeds up to 10m/s and the maximum speed in GPS mode is 10 m/s with maximum light show airspeed of 3 m/s. The integrated LEDs can create over 4 billion color combinations using red, green, blue, and white LEDs. The special software interface allows the creation of a lightshow in days instead of weeks. Intel plans to expand the system to work with more drones in the future.

SOURCE: Intel