China Breaks World Record with 22,580 Drones in Spectacular Sky Show

The Guinness World Records people have recently announced on their YouTube channel that the record for the most drones simultaneously airborne has been broken again – inevitably by a Chinese company.  On 3 February, the Guangdong EHang Egret Media Technology Co., Ltd (couldn’t they have come up with a shorter name) set aloft 22,580 drones in the city of Hefei (the capital of China’s Anhui province).  If I caught it properly, about 25 failed to set sail into the sky.  It beats the previous record by something of a margin – 15,847 had been the previous record (which was only set a few months ago – it’s getting difficult to keep up with this particular record).

The sight is beautiful – with lots of Chinese cultural motifs coming to life in the night sky.  There are lanterns, cityscapes and beautiful patterns, filmed by some of the drones themselves (I don’t know if they participated as well as filmed), so you get some interesting camera angles, both from below and above the display.  What I found fascinating, too, was seeing all of the drones lined up and being checked before the event began.  The only downside to this video is that the narration is mostly AI-driven, which could be argued as appropriate for this kind of technological achievement, I guess.  Regardless, I will stop droning on and allow you to enjoy the spectacle.  Enjoy!