Drones vs. Fireworks: The Future of Aerial Entertainment // Scholastic // University of Notre Dame

A colorful cascade of brightly flashing lights illuminate the sky at the inaugural ball, forming the shape of a green four-leaf clover. What’s this? Has the university found some way to dye the stars in the shape of a shamrock? If so, major props to the astrophysicists.

Notre Dame, it seems, is next in line to embrace the latest innovation in themed aerial entertainment: the drone show. These impressive robotic performances push technological boundaries to create stunning aerial displays. The drones are able to change color, form larger-than-life three-dimensional figures and move across the sky in perfectly calculated formations. Not only that, but just so long as there are no malfunctions, the show can be performed again and again without incurring any extra expenses (except maybe to replace a few batteries). Drone shows are fairly new and relatively uncommon, so anyone who gets to see one should consider themselves lucky.

Now, compare these shows with the current most popular form of aerial entertainment: fireworks displays. While these explosive presentations are certainly impressive, with their massive explosions and bright flashes of light that can be seen and heard from miles away, they certainly have their limitations. For one thing, fireworks can’t be reused. Once they go “kaboom,” they’re gone. Also, since fireworks are literally giant bombs (albeit colorful ones), they can pose safety hazards. Fireworks are also limited in terms of the shapes of their explosions; they can form circles and ovals of various sizes, but not much else.

With these things in mind, we can consider an interesting question: Will drone shows replace fireworks one day?

The most obvious factor to consider is cost. If Notre Dame wanted to replay Dowd’s drone show after every football win for the next 10 years, it’d barely cost them anything, certainly much less than if they wanted to put on a fireworks display anytime we take home the dub. Drone shows also open up a lot more possibilities in terms of the shapes they can form. With drones, we could light up the stars with images of the leprechaun, the Notre Dame logo, Touchdown Jesus, a football helmet and so much more. With fireworks, we could blast a lot of colorful circles into the sky. Whoopee!

I don’t think that fireworks are going anywhere any time soon, but neither are drone shows. Fireworks aren’t going to become any less impressive, but with advancements in technology happening on a daily basis, it’s only a matter of time before the drones get bigger, faster, easier to program and able to perform more complex movements. Before we know it, we could have drones playing out a full 3D recreation of “Rudy” in the sky above the stadium. Could fireworks do that?