Hollywood Shines a Spotlight on Drone Shows
FAA aviation inspectors worked closely with drone show company Verge Aero leading up to their appearance on America’s Got Talent.
By Daniel Glover, FAA
Drones were in the entertainment spotlight as part of the recent debut season of “America’s Got Talent: Extreme.” And the FAA played a role behind the scenes to make it possible. The agency approved the waiver for Verge Aero to conduct its drone light show and coordinated airspace access as necessary.
Verge Aero performed twice for the television talent show. The audition was taped last September in uncontrolled airspace near Atlanta and earned Verge Aero a “Golden Ticket” straight to the finale. The bonus show, which did not air on TV but can be seen on YouTube, was taped this past January near Santa Monica Airport.
“They’ve been very cooperative, and they worked closely with the FAA to get their operation tuned so they’re compliant with the regulations,” said Chris Doherty, the aviation safety inspector who has reviewed Verge Aero’s waiver applications. “They’re very enthusiastic about teaching us about their operation, about how their system works.”
Co-founder Tony Samaritano said Verge Aero got its start by automating tethered drones for the U.S. Navy. The company transitioned to drone light shows when research indicated a potentially big market for flying swarms of automated drones as entertainment. Verge Aero developed and tested its system in Dubai in 2018 and performed all but one of its early shows abroad before refocusing on the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Samaritano has coordinated with the FAA’s Doherty to make sure Verge Aero’s drone technology and performances incorporate safety mitigations. They worked together on the original waiver and then two amended waivers prompted by FAA rule changes in 2021.
“Not only did he get in touch with me and tell me everything I needed to know and what he was looking for,” Samaritano said of Doherty, “he really helped us through the [safety assessment] process…Chris was really awesome and super open-minded.”
Doherty is part of a five-person team that handles complex requests for waivers from various drone regulations. As a team, they review about 5,000 requests a year, and Doherty said he typically handles 10–20 a week. An increasing number of them are related to drone light shows.
In the case of Verge Aero, the FAA waiver allows one pilot to fly multiple drones at the same time and to do so at night without anti-collision lights on the drones. To conduct operations under the waiver, the company agreed to numerous safety precautions. They include:
- Assigning at least one visual observer to watch groups of no more than 250 drones;
- Training remote pilots and visual observers to recognize and overcome the potential visual illusions that occur during night flights;
- Creating and monitoring safety zones to keep spectators safe;
- And incorporating technology to keep the drones in the operational area, prevent collisions if one drone in the fleet fails, and terminate flights if necessary.
Doherty analyzed the software capabilities for Verge Aero’s drones, the drones themselves, and how the team would respond to drones that might fly away from the fleet during a show.
At one point, Samaritano created a visual presentation to better explain the specifications to Doherty. “Once he did that, the light came on and I saw what he was talking about,” Doherty said. Samaritano also gleaned safety insights from Doherty, even incorporating information into Verge Aero’s manual to better serve both the safety process and the company’s customers.
“He’s not scared to pick up the phone and call me, which is great,” Samaritano said about the rapport Doherty has built between drone pilots and safety inspectors. “I’ve had a great experience with the FAA.”
Doherty said Verge Aero adopted the crawl/walk/run approach in its requests to the FAA, upgrading their capabilities over time. “They were very realistic about what they were wanting to do, and that lent a lot of credibility to their application,” he said.
“America’s Got Talent” discovered Verge Aero thanks to a high-profile, post-election drone light show in November 2020. The company agreed to compete when the “Extreme” version of the talent show made it possible to perform outside.
For “America’s Got Talent,” Verge Aero created a significantly larger safety buffer between the operational area for the drones and the show’s judges and audience. They rehearsed the show the day before each taping. “When all the drones are laid out on the launch pad, we command them to hover,” Samaritano said. “That really shakes loose anything that could go wrong.”
Verge Aero’s audition performance wowed the judges, especially Simon Cowell, who pushed the “Golden Buzzer” that sent them straight to the finals. Although Verge Aero didn’t make the top two that performed on TV again, the second show they choreographed earned plenty of online air time — more than 515,000 views.
Verge Aero’s U.S. business consisted of about one event a month in 2020. That doubled last year, and “the floodgates are really opening” this year, Samaritano said. More events are choosing to replace, or supplement, fireworks displays with drone light shows.
That also means more safety inspections for the FAA. Doherty said about two dozen operators currently have waivers to either test new technology for drone light shows in the daytime or to perform shows at night. The agency’s focus is on making sure all of them operate safely.
