Flying start to inaugural race

FORMER COCA-COLA SITE HOSTS FIRST DRONE CHALLENGE IN THE COUNTRY

LATER this month the UK’s first ever drone racing league starts – and the first race took place in Uxbridge.

The unique event took place on May 20 in Uxbridge’s latest development, The Charter Building last, ahead of the start of a new drone racing league.

Drone pilots took over the former Coca-Cola headquarters, which has been extensively renovated and expanded into a 240,000 square foot commercial space.

Spectators gathered in the light-filled atrium were able to see drones whizzing around the building through an intricate course.

The event, titled #The Charter Project was won by DaWeapon aka Daniel Peters after a series of knock out rounds and a grand finale.

The building has been developed in a joint venture by Landid Property and Brockton Capital was completed earlier this year.

The developers staged the event just before occupiers started moving in, allowing for hoops and obstacles to be put up around vast one-acre floorplates as well as the atrium.

It comes just weeks ahead of the UK’s first ever drone racing league race, to be held at Alexandra Palace with many of the same competitors.

The building, in Char- ter Place, brought more than 1,600 jobs to Uxbridge in the construction phase, with more expected as the five-story building fills up.

Development began in 2015, before which the building was home to Coca Cola’s bottling operations

The developers are keen to make the building available to locals and plan on regularly hosting events for the community to enjoy.