Mobile drone lighting system uses 288 LEDs to turn night into day

When a flashlight just doesn’t cut it, the Flying Sun 1000 steps in—bringing serious airborne illumination to the skies. Designed by Washington-based drone maker Freefly Systems, the high-powered lighting drone system looks like something straight out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, thanks to its 288 ultra-bright LEDs.

Built around Freefly’s heavy-lift Alta X quadcopter, the Flying Sun 1000 is no ordinary drone. With folding, vibration-damping propellers and a 15 kg (33 lb) payload capacity, the Alta X can fly for 20 to 50 minutes per charge, depending on the load. Its twin 16-Ah lithium battery packs provide the necessary juice.

The Flying Sun 1000 kit equips the drone with four LED panels—each carrying 72 lights—mounted beneath the propeller arms. Altogether, the system produces a staggering 300,000 lumens of downward-facing light, powerful enough to flood even the darkest terrain.

Cooling isn’t a problem either: the propellers’ downwash helps keep the LED panels from overheating mid-flight.

From film sets and emergency scenes to construction sites, security zones, and search-and-rescue missions, the Flying Sun 1000 delivers serious illumination where it’s needed most—and takes aerial lighting into an entirely new league.