Extreme Speed: MAI Drone School at the Biggest UAV Festival in Russia

On August 24–25, the biggest drone festival in Russia, Rostec Drone Festival, was held in Gorky Park in Moscow. One of the organizers of the event was MAI Drone School. The event was held with support of Rostec State Corporation, Technodinamika Holding and All-Russian Physical Culture and Sports Society “Labor Reserves”.

One of the six ambassadors of event was Sergey Gorobets, a 2nd-year student of Moscow Aviation Institute, specializing in aircraft engineering. In the drone race, organized for ambassadors, Sergey took an honorable third place. It should be mentioned that in order to learn how to masterfully control the drone, you need a long training. Indeed, in addition to the ability to perform any acrobatic maneuvers, a racing aircraft is capable to pick up speed from 0 to 200 km/h in less than 2 seconds.

One of the best pilots of MAI Drone School took an active part in the organization of festival. The coordination of pilots on the stage was carried out by Alexander Kunashuk, the children's area with simulators and training drones was led by Mikhail Kolodochka, a third-year student of Faculty No. 7 “Robotic and Intelligent Systems”, Anna Sharova, a second-year student of Faculty No. 1 “Aircraft Engineering”, and Alexander Shilonosov, a second-year student of Faculty No. 7 “Robotic and Intelligent Systems”, worked as instructors.

As part of individual and team competitions, 32 pilots performed at the festival. Russia was represented by 16 best domestic racers who passed the preliminary selection. The remaining participants were invited masters of world drone racing. The first place in individual competitions was taken by a 15-year-old pilot from South Korea, Min Chan Kim. At the festival, he set a record by crossing the track in just 48 seconds. Among the domestic leaders of the competition was the pilot Platon Maximov, who took ninth place. The Russian team took fourth place.