China’s Ehang broke the world drone display record – but the aerial bots were out of sync

Guangzhou-based Ehang deployed a fleet of 1,374 drones at a Labour Day show in Xi’an to beat the 1,218 drones flown by Intel in February at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games

Chinese drone maker Ehang broke the Guinness World Record for the largest number of drones used in an airborne performance at a Labour Day show in Xi’an on Tuesday. Photo: Handout

China’s Ehang on Tuesday broke the world record for the largest number of drones used at an airborne show in the northwestern city of Xi’an, but witnessed an epic fail that marred its latest achievement.

The Guangzhou-based company set a new Guinness World Record for the “most number of unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously”, deploying 1,374 drones above Xi’an’s 600-year-old city wall on a 13-minute flight that spread for more than a kilometre. 

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