A number of cities are choosing drone light shows instead of fireworks displays for the 4th of July celebrations. There are a couple of reasons cited, fire prone areas do it to avoid accidentally starting fires, others cite air quality. Some are running hybrid fireworks / drone displays. Either way, the drones can be pretty impressive. There are some drawbacks, I’ve linked an article that discusses them along with a Youtube video of one taking place.
I’m so glad you posted this. I saw that headline pop up, but hadn’t read any of the articles yet. Wave of the future!!!
Amazing stuff that they can do now. I remember watching an episode on a talent show where the guy showed how it was all run by computers. I’m all for having the less fire risk and noise, but then when you think about the batteries, drone life, which is the bigger contributor to pollution to the environment. In the end, I am sure it will all come down to costs.
Drone shows are actually more expensive, and for the large ones, many more times expensive. That’s in that article I linked. Biggest reason for a lot of the change though is fires, there are a lot of towns now in fire prone areas particularly in the Midwest and fireworks are a fire hazard. Pollution issues are probably a mixed bag, yes fireworks are polluting, but the drone manufacturing process isn’t pollution free either.
That article is pretty balanced on the subject.
Some pretty cool stuff there…personally, I hate fireworks because of the effect on animals…