500 Intel Drones To Replace Fireworks Above Travis Air Force Base For Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is a little different today at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. From a report: Instead of fireworks, 500 Intel Shooting Star drones will take to the sky to perform an aerial routine in honor of the holiday and the base's 75th anniversary. These are the same drones that preformed at Disney World, the Super Bowl and the Olympics. One person controls the fleet of drones thanks to a sophisticated control platform that pre-plans the route of each drone. Intel engineers told me that the system can control an unlimited amount of drones. In the version I saw, the drones used GPS to stay in place and the drones lacked any collision detection sensors.

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[fisted]

You are trying way too hard.

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[fisted]

You are still trying way too hard.

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[fisted]

You are still trying way too hard..

500 Attempts to Get First Post on Slashdot for 4th

[Anonymous Coward]

victory is mine, m'ladies

(tips fedora vigorously)

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[b0s0z0ku]

It's not a nanny state, it's a corporate-military state. Intel showing off its military technology. Think of it as the modern equivalent of artillery (which fireworks were meant to represent).

Just as bad, but differently bad.

Also drought & wild fires

[rsilvergun]

we're kinda ignoring the massive drought going on in the southwest right now because water subsidies hide the impact. But right about now is not the time to be firing off massive fireworks.

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[tlhIngan]

This perfectly sums up the modern american nanny state. Take away something we've enjoyed for generations, replace it with an amazingly crappy knockoff that's "safer" while destroying the entire spirit to the point where it's completely pointless.

And emphasize how great it is for a private company.

I don't know who will be watching these glorified LED throwies, but I'll be out watching fireworks tonight. At least as long as I still can in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

That would be true, if

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[HiThere]

Well, I was a fan of personally lit fireworks. Not a huge fan, but a fan. The professional displays I don't bother to watch, and I never understood the reason why they were though equivalent by anyone. The symbolism is totally different.

Of course, a centralized display of fireworks is appropriate for a country that is has centralized control. So in that sense the change of the rules makes sense, with fireworks standing in for control of power.

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[nospam007]

Take away something we've enjoyed for generations, “

Fireworks are a Chinese invention, can‘t have that during avtrade war.

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[HiThere]

So is paper and printing.

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[Presence Eternal]

I've read that fireworks are a common problem for people suffering from PTSD and that they make many veterans quite miserable. Maybe this thinking was involved.

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[mikael]

But at least it gives low performing employees something to do - oh not that kind of drone. I just imagined a Dilbert cartoon with the employees tied to weather balloons and made to wave glowsticks around.

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[dwye]

Remember that you wrote it here, first, and watch the strip next year.

But that does sound like something that PHB might at least daydream of doing.

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[mikael]

Or Minions

The question is...

[Z80a]

Do you actually want intel to have an unlimited number of drones?
I mean, they're already creepy enough with those multicolored dancing bunny suit people.

lame

[bobmagicii]

for my 75th i want real explosions... maybe the drones will crash into eachother at least.

Nice Once, But Ultimately Boring

[Bruce Perens]

I saw the Intel drone show at Bellagio during CES, twice. It's nice to see for the first time, when one has never seen a drone show. But it's ultimately just 500 color LEDs in the sky and not nearly as visually exciting as a fireworks show. To have it in addition to fireworks makes sense. Replacing the fireworks show? There will be some disappointed kids.

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[dohzer]

Hey buddy, it's dangerous being a muscle car driver. That noise is very necessary to notify the vehicle next to you of your presence.
Oh wait... or am I thinking of motorbikes....? Either way, all I know is that everything I own needs to be loud and I will fight anyone who says different!!!1

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[grep -v '.*' *]

In the version I saw, ... the drones lacked any collision detection sensors.

Cool. So you wait for them to get in a mostly vertical stack, and take out the top one with your drone. SKY PINBALL! At least now you've got the "falling fireworks" covered.

Preformed drones are so convenient

[Anonymous Coward]

Just turn it on and fly it, no tedious carving, gluing and soldering!

Rescheduled, not open to public

[alokeb]

Due to high winds, the show has been rescheduled to 7/5 in the AM and is open only to DoD card holders and family per their website/Twitter post: https://twitter.com/Travis60AM... [twitter.com]

POSTPONED

[Subgenius]

This drone show has been postponed until July 5th (for DOD card holders and families ONLY) due to high winds on the base today.

http://www.kcra.com/article/tr... [kcra.com]

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[HiThere]

I don't know kcra, but a Google search confirms this story. (Well, the winds. I didn't check about visitor limitations, but that's normal for a military base anyway.)

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[Thomas Charron]

So what you saying is. You just want to see big roman candles. You know, since you just want to simulate the old military rockets..

Breaking news:

[uvajed_ekil]

This just in: The fourth of July drone celebration at Travis Air Force Base has been cancelled, because no one wants to see that shit instead of fireworks.