25-FOOT HEIGHTRACING GATEWORLD DRONE PRIX
In 2016 Dubai hosted the first-ever World Drone Prix, the
biggest and most lucrative drone racing event at the time.
The 150 teams that took part in the qualifying rounds had
to compete for 12 laps, overcoming a series of obstacles
with as few penalties as possible. To win they had to fi nish
first after making at least one pit stop per race.
ight has fallen at Hard Rock Stadium,
home of the Miami Dolphins. Glowing
a ghostly green, a gate rises from the
empty stands as billows of fog swirl
around, creating an atmosphere like
a scene from a science fi ction movie.The stadium seems almost deserted,
and yet there is palpable excitement
in the air, which is suddenly fi lled with
the buzz of high-pitched engines. Six
fl ashes of light are racing toward the
gate: They are the LEDs of the racing
drones. As the unmanned vehicles
pass through the gate, they change
direction in a fraction of a second
and vanish in the neon-lit corridors
of the stadium. But one of the drones
doesn’t make it. First there’s a bang,
followed by a hail of ruptured lightingtubes and drone fragments hitting the
ground. The buzzing of the other fi ve
drones begins to fade away as they
continue their high-speed race inside
the huge stadium.
With a string of expletives, Ken Loo
tears his goggles from his face as he
sees his crashed drone. “What I really
love about drones is the feeling of
fl ying,” he explains. “I feel like I’m in
the cockpit of an aircraft.” The crash
has brought him back to reality in a
brutal manner. Loo is a die-hard drone