Hanwha mulls fireworks display drones

Hanwha Group, South Korea’s leading defense conglomerate, is working on using unmanned aircrafts, or drones, for the fireworks festival it holds every year near its landmark 63 City building in Yeouido, Seoul, industry sources said Wednesday.

“Hanwha is a powerhouse of the domestic fireworks industry, and has worked for the past couple of years to add more aesthetic effects to the Seoul International Fireworks Festival with its own drone technology,” said a source close to the matter on condition of anonymity.

But sources said the company was still struggling to iron out technical problems such as stability control, delaying the drones’ official debut. They predicted this year’s fireworks event, planned for October, would not feature the drones.

“The trickiest part is to make the heavy drones fly stably during the fireworks. They have not yet found the solution,” said another source, who declined to be named. 

A Hanwha spokesperson declined to comment on the drone plan.

The deployment of drones in fireworks displays, if made into reality, will likely be the first of its kind in the world. Video footage featuring drones flying through fireworks in the U.S. went viral last year, but no fireworks company has actually displayed fireworks with drones.

Hanwha, which started its business as a maker of commercial explosives and weapons in 1952, has been making considerable efforts to grow its defense business.

The company is expected to become the nation’s largest defense company on completion of its acquisition of defense and chemical units from Samsung Group later this month. The two business groups reached a deal worth $1.9 trillion won ($1.72 billion) for the two firms in November.

With drones gaining traction as part of a rising industry, the company has also pushed its own drone development projects for surveillance and leisure purposes.

The company has teamed up with small- and mid-sized drone-makers and research laboratories at universities including Sejong University and Korea Aerospace University to conduct joint research and development projects for quadrotor helicopters.

Hanwha’s acquisition of Samsung Techwin, the defense unit of Samsung Group, is also said to be aimed at beefing up the firm’s capabilities in the defense business, drones in particular.

Samsung Techwin has introduced a quadrotor, named the Cube Copter, which features folding propellers and a built-in surveillance camera.

The world will see the global drone market grow 14 percent to $11 billion by 2024, according to a 2014 report released by U.S. research institute Teal Group.

Global firms from a wide range of fields, including Google, Amazon and FedEx, are gearing up to infiltrate the fledgling drone market.

In Korea, only a few small- and medium-sized firms, including Xdrone and Byrobot, have started selling commercial and consumer drones.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)