--- title: How TIME Magazine Used Drones to Create Its Cover description: TIME's newest cover was created with nearly 1,000 drones making a light show in the sky. canonical: https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-31T10:21:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:43:38.350Z article:section: Business og:title: How TIME Magazine Used Drones to Create Its Cover og:description: TIME's newest cover was created with nearly 1,000 drones making a light show in the sky. og:url: https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7000da1dc242ab8/698931d9bc6cfcd5283e6155/drones-social-3x2-2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Drone Age Time Magazine cover SOCIAL 3x2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How TIME Magazine Used Drones to Create Its Cover twitter:description: TIME's newest cover was created with nearly 1,000 drones making a light show in the sky. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7000da1dc242ab8/698931d9bc6cfcd5283e6155/drones-social-3x2-2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # TIME's Drones Issue: Go Behind the Cover May 31, 2018 10:21 AM CUT  Drone video still by TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 31, 2018 10:21 AM CUT To create the first TIME cover shot by a drone, we worked with Intel’s Drone Light Show team, Astraeus Aerial Cinema Systems and L.A. Drones—plus 958 drones set to display a precise shade of red, and another one to hold a camera in the air at just the right angle. The result was one of the biggest drone shows ever produced in the U.S., so of course it drew some attention. One Folsom, Calif., resident interviewed by a local news reporter recounted, “Up in the sky, I saw the future.” [TIME Special Report: The Drone Era](http://www.time.com/drones "undefined")  Members of the Intel Shooting Star team test a few of their drones before a cover animation attempt on May 3, 2018 in Folsom, Calif. Jake Stangel for TIME  Second Pilot Travis Samson and Pilot in Command Corey Gineris from Astraeus Aerial inspect the “Big Drone” used to shoot the cover video and image. Jake Stangel for TIME  Second Pilot Travis Samson assists in flying the drone (pictured right). Jake Stangel for TIME  D.W. Pine and Josh Raab from TIME review content on the screen. Jake Stangel for TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/"},"headline":"TIME's Drones Issue: Go Behind the Cover","datePublished":"2018-05-31T10:21:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:43:38.350Z","description":"TIME's newest cover was created with nearly 1,000 drones making a light show in the sky.","url":"https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/","keywords":["Tech","Drones","longform"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5287593/time-drones-behind-cover/","name":"TIME's Drones Issue: Go Behind the Cover"}}]}] ```