ABC News reported that a 15 year old pilot from England, Luke Bannister, led the team that won the first World Drone Prix held in Dubai this week end.
The team, Tornado X-Blades Banni UK, won $250,000, part of the $1 million purse. The drone race will become part of the World Future Sports Games to be held in Dubai in 2017. Those contests will also include robotic swimming, running, wrestling and car racing.
ABC reports:
“We are trying to bring the future closer to us,” said Mohammed al-Gergawi, the United Arab Emirates‘ minister for Cabinet affairs.
At the World Drone Prix, four pilots at a time sat in racing-style seats, their eyes covered by goggles allowing them to watch a feed from a camera on their drone. The drones raced on a course behind them, zipping along a white track that occasionally reached up to pinch at the speeding aircraft for 12 laps with the skyscrapers of the Dubai Marina behind them.
You can find the complete article here.
Related:
- Shots of the track on Imgur can be found here.
- You can lean more on Dubai World Drone Prix Facebook page
- Here is a video courtesy of World Drone Prix published in advance of the event of a race between a McLarern car and a drone:
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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