A twisted fire sale

Guangzhou-based drone company EHang has broken the world drone display record for the most drones used at an airborne show, but the decidedly indifferent Chinese media preferred to point out the cock-ups.

The fact half of the 1,374 drones were doing their own thing during the display does take the shine off any bragging rights EHang might have been looking to gain over Intel and its previous record-holding 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games show.

Guinness World Records must now be wishing it added the caveat of “successful” to this particular record, because the sole requirement of beating EHang’s latest effort is presumably just to obtain 1,375 drones and get them up in the air.

There’s a closing Maplin store up the road from the Downtime office that could do with a last hurrah. What better way to go than rounding up all its propeller-clad dead stock and breaking a record?

It could get its low-end strobes and smoke machines in on the act, too, and set them all off with gunpowder as the drones crash down for a big finale. The liquidation-sale vultures can stick their money.

The South China Morning Post would obviously rip the show to shreds, circling every false hovered move like a Heat magazine cellulite and armpit-stain special, but who’s going to care? Not Maplin, that’s for sure.