This page covers the races that the published record does describe: community races before the 2015 Nationals, the first race sanctioned by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), the July 2015 event that Quartz reported as the first US national championship, and the larger events of 2016. Where the beginnings of the sport are disputed, see origins of FPV flying; no source read for this site documents a first race.
Community races before the 2015 Nationals
Make: magazine (23 July 2015) says that before the 2015 national championship, Scot Refsland had been running FPV races in Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley, California, and that until then the only races were community events.
In Australia, a June 2015 news report, itself relaying two other outlets, described a league that racers had formed as the country's first legal drone racing league, said its director dated the local scene to two or three years earlier, and said races were held in warehouses, on farms and at go-kart tracks. That report is secondhand, it gives no founding date for the league, and nothing else read for this site confirms it, so it is unconfirmed.
The first AMA-sanctioned race: May 2015 or April 2015
The AMA's own record and Bard's explainer give different months and places for the first race the AMA sanctioned.
| Who says it | When and where | Other details |
|---|---|---|
| Model Aviation (AMA museum staff, August 2017 issue) and the AMA's National Model Aviation Museum blog (21 July 2017) | May 2015, on the Santa Barbara High School football field, California, during the Drones Data X conference | Organised by Scot Refsland, with fewer than 25 pilots; won by Zoe Stumbaugh, flying a modified 290 mm hexacopter she called "Rat" |
| Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College (13 August 2016) | April 2015, named the "Santa Cruz FPV Drone Race" | None beyond the name |
The AMA account is the sanctioning body's own record. Its museum says Stumbaugh later gave the aircraft to the museum together with her transmitter and goggles; that collection is described on equipment history.
The 2015 US national championship, July 2015
A US national drone racing championship was held at the California State Fair in Sacramento in July 2015; Quartz (via Nextgov) reported it as the first. The reports read for this site agree on the place, and those that name a winner name the same pilot, but they describe the event, its organiser and its field in different words.
- Quartz, via Nextgov (17 July 2015): held at Bonney Field, opening on 16 July and ending on 17 July 2015; organised by Refsland (spelled "Scott" in that report); more than 100 racers on the first day; an FAA aviation safety inspector attended to observe.
- Make: (23 July 2015): named it the 2015 Fat Shark Drone Racing National Championships, at the Cal Expo stadium, with Refsland as organiser and race director, and said the FAA and the AMA had voiced support.
- Bard (2016): says the event was organised by Rotor Sports.
- Christian Science Monitor (26 July 2015): reported a 13-inch motor-to-motor limit on the racing aircraft.
The winner was Chad Nowak of Australia, flying as "FinalGlideAUS". Make: says he won the individual race and the freestyle event and was in the winning team; the Christian Science Monitor names him champion; Bard says he won every event.
How many pilots raced
| Field size | Who gives it |
|---|---|
| More than 100 | Quartz via Nextgov (17 July 2015); Bard (2016) |
| A 100-person field | Christian Science Monitor (26 July 2015) |
| About 120 pilots from nine countries | Make: (23 July 2015) |
| About 120 | Fortune (9 August 2016) |
Whether this event crowned a national champion or, as one later account put it, the first world champion is on the world championship claims.
2016: bigger events, in more countries
The World Drone Prix, Dubai, March 2016
The World Drone Prix was held in Dubai in March 2016. Luke Bannister of the United Kingdom, aged 15, won it, flying for the team Tornado X-Blades Banni UK (sUAS News, March 2016). The exact dates (11 and 12 March) appear only in search summaries and are unconfirmed. The field size is also unsettled: Bard says more than 150 racers, while other reports seen only as search summaries gave 150 teams or more than 100 pilots. Bard adds that in April 2016 Bannister also won a race at Wembley Stadium in London.
The 2016 US Nationals, Governors Island
Bard says the Drone Sports Association (DSA) formed in July 2016 after an aborted merger between RotorSports and the International Drone Racing Association. The DSA, chaired by Refsland, ran the 2016 US National Drone Racing Championships on Governors Island, New York, on 5 to 7 August 2016. Model Aviation (December 2016 issue) says the event was sanctioned by the AMA with MultiGP as a partner and streamed live on ESPN3, that 150 pilots qualified from about 1,400 who entered 21 qualifiers, and that Zachry Thayer won the individual quad race. Bard gives 145 competitors rather than 150.
The 2016 Nationals were billed as the US qualifier for a world championship in Hawaii that October (Sports Destination Management, 29 March 2016); that event and its label are on the world championship claims.
MultiGP's 2015 and 2016 championships
Model Aviation (April 2017 issue) says MultiGP held its 2015 national championship in December 2015 in Ocoee, Florida, and its 2016 championship at the AMA's headquarters in Muncie, Indiana, on 2 to 4 September 2016. Both were won by Shaun Taylor. The other accounts of the 2016 event's date and size are on MultiGP history.
The FAI's first World Cup season
The FAI's first drone racing World Cup ran in 2016, from an event at Le Plan, Pourrieres, France, on 13 to 15 May 2016 to one at Osan, South Korea, on 11 and 12 November 2016 (FAI 2016 World Cup report). That season is on the FAI and drone racing.
Australia's national championships
Region Canberra (17 August 2022) says Australia's national drone racing championships, the Australian Drone Nationals, began in 2016. They were held on the Gold Coast in 2016 and 2017, in Fremantle in 2018 and in Canberra in 2019, paused in 2020 and 2021, and returned in Canberra in 2022.
Sources
- Make:, FPV drone racing goes big league (Mike Senese, 23 July 2015)
- Daily Pakistan, Game of drones: Australia's new underground sport (20 June 2015, citing Oddity Central and Mashable Australia)
- Model Aviation (AMA), National Model Aviation Museum staff on the first AMA-sanctioned FPV race (August 2017 issue)
- AMA National Model Aviation Museum blog, the first AMA-sanctioned FPV race and its winning aircraft (21 July 2017)
- Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, Need to Know: Drone Racing (Matt Windsor, 13 August 2016, updated 18 January 2017)
- Nextgov (from Quartz), First national drone racing championship underway in California (Mike Murphy, 17 July 2015)
- Christian Science Monitor, Drone racing championship attracts experts in first-person flying (Dawn-Marie Cornett, 26 July 2015)
- Fortune, on the future of drone racing (Lev Grossman, 9 August 2016)
- sUAS News, Luke Bannister wins Dubai drone GP (Gary Mortimer, March 2016)
- Model Aviation (AMA), US National Drone Racing Championship 2016 (Patrick Sherman, December 2016 issue)
- Sports Destination Management, US National Drone Racing Championships announced (29 March 2016)
- Model Aviation (AMA), MultiGP and its 2016 championship (Rachelle Haughn, April 2017 issue)
- FAI, 2016 FPV Racing World Cup report (Bruno Delor, 24 November 2016)
- Region Canberra, Australia's biggest drone race is taking off in Canberra (17 August 2022)