Sky Elements now holds two more Guinness World Records, and its X post on Monday morning showed the certificates. One is for the largest aerial display of a mythical creature, a blue dragon formed by 10,183 drones over Blue Ridge, Texas. The other is for the most drones launched in a week: 71,207, across seven shows on three nights starting September 27.
Both records were flown with Damoda America, the US partner of the Shenzhen drone-show maker whose own 10,197-drone show held the world record for the most drones airborne at once until late 2025. The dragon was flown with 14 fewer drones than that.
The Dragon Beat the Old Record by More Than 7,900 Drones
The previous mythical-creature record was 2,247 drones, set by the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah on New Year’s Eve 2025. Sky Elements flew the dragon on September 28, according to Guinness World Records, which published its account on October 6 after adjudicator Michael Empric signed off on both titles.
The week record replaced the 55,939 drones that Aerial Illuminations Drone Shows and UVify launched earlier this year. Sky Elements says six of its seven shows used 10,000 drones each and the finale used 11,000, which the company calls the largest drone show ever flown in America. Guinness confirmed the week total and the dragon, not the single-show claim. Guinness counts the attempt as running September 27 to 30, a day longer than the company’s own September 27 to 29, and says the crews got the first show up on Sunday before a thunderstorm rolled in and flew five shows on the final night.
Empric called it “one of the most challenging drone attempts I’ve adjudicated.”
The formations were original for every show and ran through an eagle, a lion, turning gears, Pegasus, a black hole, Noah’s Ark and a closing UFO sequence, according to the company’s October 2 release. These are Sky Elements’ 18th and 19th Guinness titles, after the 5,000-drone Vecna over Las Vegas last December and the 2,977 drones that rebuilt the Twin Towers over New York Harbor in September.
Damoda’s Trays Made Seven Relaunches Possible
Each drone lived in a Damoda storage box. The large tray charges the aircraft and doubles as its launch and landing pad, so nothing was placed by hand between shows, according to Guinness. Damoda engineers from Shenzhen worked the farm alongside the Sky Elements crew.
CEO Rick Boss says shows of this size had until now happened in Asia and the Middle East, and that the week proves an American team can fly them at home. The company now wants to sell 10,000-drone shows to sports leagues, cities and brands.
DroneXL’s Take
The hardware is the bigger story here. The world record for drones airborne at once is EHang’s 22,580 over Hefei, more than double the Blue Ridge finale, and every holder of that title since 2024 has been a Chinese operator. Sky Elements closed part of that gap with Damoda’s drones, Damoda’s trays and Damoda’s engineers on the field. My read is that Rick Boss is right about the team and wrong about the framing, because the week showed an American operator can run a 10,000-drone show and it also showed the fleet to do it with is still Chinese. A ban on Chinese show drones would not create an American Damoda, it would just make the dragon smaller. Sky Elements was grounded by the FAA 22 months ago after part of a 500-drone show fell into a crowd in Orlando, and if I were buying a 10,000-drone show I’d ask about that week as much as about this one.
Sources: Guinness World Records, Sky Elements (PR Newswire), Sky Elements on X
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
