The USAF’s Travis Air Force Base has celebrated the fourth of July with a big addition. The Travis Air Force Base has replaced the traditional July 4th fireworks display with the much-talked Intel Shooting Star drone light show.

The United States regularly celebrates the Fourth of July (Independence Day) with some big fireworks display. But this year’s Independence Day celebration is different. The USAF has made a huge tech addition along with the carefully choreographed light show. Instead of the traditional fireworks display, the Air Force has decided to use drones.  The Air Force has flown 500 Intel Shooting Star drones to celebrate the Independence Day. The drones have performed a choreographed aerial routine in honor of the Independence Day, and the base’s 75th anniversary.

Travis AFB  Image Credit: Bill Abbott/Wikimedia Creative Commons
The celebration 
The USAF’s Travis Air Force Base has teamed up with tech giant Intel to recognize active military personnel, US veterans and participants of the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP). The EFMP was originally created to identify educational and medical service requirements of family members in support of active-duty sponsor reassignment as well as civilian employment overseas. The Travis Air Force Base has one of the largest EFMO populations, according to USAF.

According to TechCrunch, these are the same drones that performed at the SuperBowl and Disney World. Intel engineers shared some important details about how they performed the iconic light show using their Intel Shooting Star drones. The system features a sophisticated control that can be used to program the route of each drone. The drones relied on GPS technology to stay on course and avoid any collision. More importantly, the system requires only a few numbers of people to control the drones.

About Intel Shooting Star
First introduced in 2016, the Intel Shooting Star is a quadcopter drone developed by Intel. The drone is made up of lightweight materials, Styrofoam and has built-in LEDs for display purposes. The Shooting Star can be controlled by a single computer and operator. The Shooting Star can create more than four billion color combinations, thanks to the built-in LEDs. The system used an algorithm to control the light show choreograph and optimize the drone flight path.