Cancer survivor beats epic drone record after finding passion during treatment
A man who discovered a passion for drones while undergoing cancer treatment has broken an epic record.
Christopher Bradbury (UK) lit up the night sky with the most emojis formed by multirotor/drones in three minutes – an impressive total of 30.
His drone show above Shropshire in June broke the previous record of 24 set by Sky Elements Drone Shows (USA).
Christopher is a passionate model aircraft and drone operator, and first started flying his models while undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
The attempt used 109 drones which were all programmed by Christopher.
Explaining how it all came about, he said: “I started flying model aircraft in 2007 as a kind of bucket list item as I was going through chemotherapy for cancer.
I found it got me out of the house, which was great for my physical therapy as well as my mental wellbeing at the time.
“I soon met people that were building and experimenting with drone technology and it kind of fascinated me a little bit, because it wasn’t something you could just go and buy and fly, you had to build it from scratch and assemble it from parts.”
It wasn’t long before Christopher’s passion turned into his career.
“The drone world has basically become my entire life,” he told us. “I now do aerial filming for TV and film, I do surveying work and I’ve started playing with drone swarms.”
For his record attempt, Christopher said he wanted to ensure he had a good mixture of emojis, not just because the guidelines stated they must all be individual, but so it was as interesting as possible for anybody who went along to watch.
He used a mix of winking faces and objects, such as the eggplant, poop symbol, rocket and magnet.
But deciding which emojis to use was far from being the most difficult part of the record attempt.
Christopher said: “The trickier part was how to get them to transition into the next one and the next one.
“If you imagine I’ve got 100 of my drones up in the sky, and I’m trying to move all of them from one shape into the next shape without them colliding into each other.
“It takes a lot of three-dimensional spatial planning to make sure that all goes through safely.”
Christopher says achieving this record was not just a personal challenge for him, but also a way to give something back to the industry that’s given him so much.
He added: “I would love it if in 10 years’ time, my record is smashed and it’s done by someone who says ‘I did it because I saw Chris Bradbury’s video’.
“That would be amazing.”