A group of French drone enthusiasts have decided that if they are unable to fly real spaceships in a Star Wars style Pod Race, they might as well get the next closest thing. With that in mind Airgonay, the club in question, set up a racing course in the French Alps and had a short competition with 24 drone pilots.
Modern commercial drones have no lack of speed and maneuverability, and these French pilots show just how thrilling a first person view of the track can be. With the machines flying at close to 65kph while dodging trees and other drones is a sight to behold, and one of the members, Herve Pellarin, of the club has posted a video of the event.
Pellarin hopes that the video will inspire other clubs to hold similar races, and popularise the sport of drone racing. As a virtual reality developer, he is also looking for to adding some augmented reality systems to the drones to simulate laser blasts; because just racing drones through the forest while watching from virtual reality goggles is apparently not exciting enough.
[Source: Gigaom]
