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Star Trek quadrocoptors boldly glow in London aerial display

Flying robots have formed the Federation logo over London's Tower Bridge -- check out the video within.

Luke Westaway Senior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
2 min read

Coordinated flying robots invaded the London skies this weekend, pleasing nerds across the capital with a Star Trek-branded aerial display.

The glowing drones, each of which is powered by four rotors, formed the Trek Federation logo -- transported from its usual spot a few inches above Picard's nipple to the London atmosphere, where it hovered for over an hour.

The stunt, which you can see in the video below, was organised as a promo for JJ Abram's upcoming flick Star Trek Into Darkness, which is out on 9 May and promises to replicate the thrills, spills, lens flare and fan-angering timeline-trampling of the first movie.

The display also tied into the WWF's Earth Hour, an hour-long nod to mother nature in which major buildings powered down to raise awareness for the environment. The luminous air show powered down at 8:30pm, Paramount says, then lit up again at 9:30 in tandem with surrounding British landmarks.

The tip of the logo was a whopping 426 feet above ground, an impressive height for the humble quadrocoptor to ascend. Paramount recruited Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies to handle the syncronised 'bots, which do a very impressive job -- though as one YouTube commenter spied, at the 1m20s mark you can see two of the 'coptors bump into each other, knocking one out of commission.

While it tickles our fan-glands, this isn't the most impressive thing we've seen quadrocoptors accomplish -- check out the video below of two robots juggling and balancing a pole while flying, and fear for the future of weak, fleshy humans.

Are you a quadrocoptor fan? Are you looking forward to the new Star Trek movie? Say so in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

Image credit: Ars Electronica