On the first weekend of August on New York City's Governor's Island, a group of 150 drone pilots stood transfixed behind first-person-view (FPV) goggles streaming live video feeds from their high-performance custom aircraft. As they flicked their fingers on remote controllers, their drones screamed through hoops and around obstacles at 60 miles per hour.
The pilots were competing for a $50,000 grand prize in the Drone Sports Association's (DSA) second-annual U.S. National Drone Racing Championships, the signature event of what a handful of entrepreneurs, hackers, and radio-control hobbyists hope to turn into the next big spectator sport.
"Developing a new sport takes a lot of time and money, but we've reached a tipping point," says Tim Nilson, the founder of Lumenier, an FPV drone manufacturer. Nilson, a board member of Drone Sports Association, says drone racing is quickly gaining momentum despite still being in its "black-and-white-television days."
Zachry "A_Nub" Thayer took home the day's top prize. Paul "Bulbufet" Nurkkala came in second place, while Christopher "M3" Wang finished third. The 150 pilots at the championships had advanced from 20 qualifying competitions with a total of 1,400 pilots across the U.S. over the past year.
The event was broadcast on ESPN's streaming service and sponsored by GoPro, AIG, Ernst & Young, and other corporations.Greg French, founder of FPV goggle manufacturer Fat Shark, says he is amazed by how quickly big business has gotten involved in drone racing. The sport began forming in 2014 after a group of RC enthusiasts in France uploaded a video to YouTube. Last year saw the first serious race at the World Drone Prix in Dubai, where a 15-year-old pilot won $250,000.
"Just a few years ago, all of this was a small community of people getting together to play with quads and wings," French says.
DSA is not the only company trying to create a global professional racing league. Tough Mudder founder Nicholas Horbaczewski's Drone Racing League has raised $8 million hosting races (without a live audience) and posting videos online. Aerial Sports League is opening a drone racing complex in San Francisco, while DR1, yet another league, will stream videos ofits races via gaming platform Twitch.
Drone Sports Association, however, is trying to make drone racing a live spectator sport. Nilson says with the help of ESPN, DSA can capture an audience of young people, as well as older RC hobbyists and others generally interested in tech.
Jon Ollwerther, COO of Brooklyn-based Aerobo, a company that designs and operates drones for news, film, and sports, is similarly optimistic about the fortunes of drone racing as a whole.
"It's like if Twitch and Nascar had a baby," he says. "We will soon see drone racing as a global sport."
Aug 11, 2016
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\r\n\r\n------END OF INSTAGRAM -------\r\n\r\nThe FPV headsets stream video from tiny onboard cameras attached to the high-performance custom drones, which were zipping up to 60 miles per hour overhead.\r\n\r\nDrone media companies, manufacturers, and robotics companies staked tents along the sidelines of the baseball field, which was transformed into a drone race track.\r\n\r\nBIZ MODEL FOR LEAGUE DSA:\r\nNilson, the former CTO of Sony Music, is on his third drone-related company since 2011. He says DSA's business model is similar to other pro sports leagues with sponsors, merchandise, licensing, advertising, and broadcast deals.\r\n\r\nbut you see excitement, emotion, dazzlingly feats of hand-and-eye coordination. Over the next two years, you will see the rise of drone celebrities and heroes, just like football, baseball and hockey.\"\r\n\r\nin the last two years thanks to the combination of cheap smartphone technology, investment from big venture capitalists and a tight-knit and enthusiastic community of hackers and aeronautical engineers. The result is a \r\n\r\n\"The first time we saw big money and sponsors was last year in Dubai for the ,\" says French, as he pushes his goggles up his forehead. \r\n\r\n\"To think that this has attracted the attention of large companies, \r\n\r\nby the likes of Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross\r\n----EXTRA QUOTES ---------\r\n\r\nAIG QUOTES\r\nEven if the sport remains in its self-proclaimed nerdy niche of hackers and hobbyists, the commercialization and militarization of drones is where this niche started. Carson Lyons, AIG's Aerospace vice president of general aviation, wrote one of the first insurance policies for a drone a few years ago. Althought the drone division at AIG is still small, the insurance company has a fleet of six drones and 12 pilots, which they deploy to check on claims, asses damage like after Japan's typhoon, and handle inspections in agriculture and marine industries.\r\n\"Early on, it was mostly government work and big business, but as the technology improved and got smaller and lower in cost and higher in capabilities, more commercial entities from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies are now using drones and getting insurance policies,\" says Lyons. \"The potential is huge.\"\r\n\r\n\r\nAEROBO\r\nOllwerther says that with 150 pilots in one place, all of who were focused on making drones lighter, faster and stronger, he believes more advancement happened last weekend than would've happened during a year of meetings. The pool of engineering talent coming together will eventually trickle down to the consumer.\r\n\r\n\"If you look at Formula 1 racing, it's about pushing the limits of technology,\" Ollwerther says. \"You will see the technology created for performance on the track trickle down to the BMWs being sold to consumers, ABS breaks, seat belts, fuel injection, all of these advancements came out of racing.\"\r\n\r\nFAT SHARK \r\nGreg French, founder of FPV goggle manufacturer Fat Shark, has been in the industry for eight years. Fat Shark has 100 employees and brings in over $10 million a year. \r\n\r\n\"I wouldn't have expected to be at a drone race in New York City sponsored by GoPro and AIG and Ernst & Young,\" says French, as he pushes his goggles up his forehead. \r\n\r\nWhile sitting on a lawn chair with a view of the World Trade Center as a backdrop, ","inc_track_changesflag":false,"inc_cta_text":null,"inc_cta_url":null,"time_updated":"2021-01-05 18:04:09","channels":[{"id":7,"cnl_name":"Innovate","cnl_filelocation":"innovate","cnl_featuretype":"None","cnl_custom_color":"9DC786","cnl_calculated_color":null,"cnl_contributor_accessflag":true,"cnl_custom_article_footer":"Inc. helps entrepreneurs change the world. Get the advice you need to start, grow, and lead your business today. Subscribe here for unlimited access.","cnl_global_nav_background_color":null,"cnl_global_nav_background_gradient_start":null,"cnl_global_nav_background_gradient_end":null,"cnl_iflid":0,"sortorder":null},{"id":374,"cnl_name":"Wire","cnl_filelocation":"wire","cnl_featuretype":null,"cnl_custom_color":null,"cnl_calculated_color":null,"cnl_contributor_accessflag":false,"cnl_custom_article_footer":null,"cnl_global_nav_background_color":null,"cnl_global_nav_background_gradient_start":null,"cnl_global_nav_background_gradient_end":null,"cnl_iflid":0,"sortorder":1}],"categories":[],"primarychannelarray":null,"authors":[{"id":3551,"aut_name":"Will Yakowicz","aut_usrid":463017,"aut_base_filelocation":"will-yakowicz","aut_imgid":59790,"aut_twitter_id":"WillYakowicz","aut_title":"Staff writer, Inc.","aut_blurb":"Will Yakowicz is an award-winning journalist and is a staff writer and podcaster for Inc. magazine.
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