A New Universal Patent Filing Describes a Creature Drone That Flaps Faster as It Speeds Up and Can Carry a Fire Effect

Universal promised flying dragons over Isle of Berk before Epic Universe opened. WDW News Today reported in April 2026 that one had been seen above the land only once, during IAAPA week in November 2025.

A Universal patent application published Thursday spells out in technical detail how a creature drone is supposed to behave in the air. It does not say when, or whether, any such drone will fly.

The spire at Isle of Berk in a Universal publicity photo. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

What the filing actually says

The document is United States Patent Application 20260257816, titled "DRONE ATTRACTION SYSTEM AND METHOD," assigned to Universal City Studios LLC. It published on September 3, 2026 and was filed on February 26, 2026, claiming priority to a provisional application filed on February 28, 2025.

The core idea is a drone that does not read as a drone. Rather than hanging a costume off an aircraft, the filing describes syncing the creature's body movements to the flight movements, so the body movement reads as the cause of the flight. The filing is explicit that the correspondence is simulated, with the wings flapping faster "despite the wings not necessarily contributing to the acceleration of the drone forward":

• Wings flap faster when the drone accelerates. The claim language pairs "an increase in a flapping rate of the wing" with "an acceleration of the drone."
• The head or neck moves toward a direction, and the flight maneuver is a turn toward that same direction.
• Another claim, as published, recites tail movement, the opening or closing of a mouth, or any combination of the two.
• One arrangement uses three motor groups driving a pair of propellers each, six propellers in total, with at least one of those motor pairs in a co-axial arrangement.

The described creature is generic, not licensed. The filing says a drone "may resemble a flighted animal or creature, such as a bird," with a mouth, head, neck, eyes, wings, legs, tail and torso. It also allows for showier hardware: "Other animated component features may include a speaker configured to output noise, a pyrotechnic feature configured to output fire, and the like."

Hiccup and Toothless, who guests meet on the ground at Isle of Berk. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

Where it is allowed to fly

A good chunk of the filing is about keeping the drones away from people. It describes a geofence that may be implemented with GPS technologies and/or other technologies such as Real Time Kinematics, and, in some embodiments, drones flying to programmed waypoints in sequence and leaving a launch pad one after another along the same path.

The safety framing is explicit: "In some embodiments, the pre-defined flight area is in a portion of the entertainment venue in which guests are not permitted to travel, thereby blocking or reducing a likelihood of interaction between the drones and the guests." The filing also describes an onboard printed circuit board that may carry a redundant processor and redundant communication circuitry, with a redundant battery listed among other componentry that may also be employed.

Why Theme Park Insider connects it to Berk

The application does not mention dragons, Isle of Berk, or Epic Universe. The connection is Theme Park Insider's. Writing on Friday, Robert Niles noted that "Universal's patent applications describes drones that include motors for both flying and for articulating a character," and added: "The current application of this tech seems to be the flying dragons above Isle of Berk in Universal Epic Universe."

He also framed what the design is for, writing that the application "details the specific method by which Universal has designed these drones to create the illusion of a flying character without looking like a bulky drone with dressing."

The backstory is the part fans will recognize. Universal confirmed in early 2025 that Isle of Berk would have flying dragons. Epic Universe opened to the public on May 22, 2025, and a week later WDW News Today ran the headline "One Week After Opening, Flying Dragon Drones Nowhere to Be Seen at Epic Universe." A dragon was filmed flying over Berk in November 2025 during IAAPA. In April 2026, aerial photos by X user @bioreconstruct showed two dragon drones, both appearing to be Monstrous Nightmares, sitting on a landing pad backstage with crew working on them, and WDW News Today wrote in that same report: "The only time a flying dragon was seen above Isle of Berk was during IAAPA back in November."

The Isle of Berk entrance portal. The land is full of dragons on the ground. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

What it does and does not tell us

A patent application is a filing, not a schedule. Nothing here has been granted: this is a published application, the claims quoted above are the claims as published, and examination can narrow or reject any of them. It does not commit Universal to putting anything in the air, and plenty of theme park patent filings never leave the page.

What the dates do say: the non-provisional application was filed in February 2026, roughly nine months after Epic Universe opened without its dragons flying and about three months after the November 2025 IAAPA week flight. But the disclosure behind it is older. The provisional it claims priority to was filed on February 28, 2025, before the park opened, and February 2026 is the ordinary twelve month deadline for converting a provisional filed then. The filing date marks a legal deadline, not the start of new work.

Universal has not announced when the flying dragons will debut, and a filing that never mentions them is not one.

Sources

• United States Patent Application 20260257816, "DRONE ATTRACTION SYSTEM AND METHOD," Universal City Studios LLC
• Theme Park Insider, Robert Niles, "Disney, Universal file new patent applications for show elements"
• WDW News Today, "Flying Dragon Drones Spotted Backstage at Epic Universe Again"
• WDW News Today, "One Week After Opening, Flying Dragon Drones Nowhere to Be Seen at Epic Universe"
• WDW News Today, "BREAKING: Dragons Fly Over How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk at Epic Universe"

Image credits: all photographs by Universal Orlando Resort.