A fleet of drones has taken to the night sky for the biggest aerial display of the gadgets over U.S. soil.

Sporting an array of LEDs, the aerial army of 100 drones twinkled in the twilight as they flashed red, blue and white over the Californian desert.

The display took place in Palm Springs earlier this year and was organised by computer microchip giant Intel.

According to the firm, such displays could be common place in future, with synchronised drone displays over sports stadiums and events in place of, or accompanying, firework displays.

Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, said: "With Intel, we're experimenting with events like this where we really start to stretch the limits of how you control 100 robots in the air at once."

The feat, which has been called "Drone 100" had previously been achieved in Germany, but the Palm Springs attempt marked the first time it had taken place in the U.S.

Intel released a video of the impressive displays, which had musical accompaniment from an orchestra.

"Our goal is to be able to do this over stadiums, to do this over events that have large populations," said Krzanich.

To fly the synchronised robot army, Intel enlisted the help of Austrian firm Ars Electronica FutureLab, which developed its own ground control software so the drones could follow flight paths.

Once a choreographed display was programmed from hand-drawn plans, the drones were able to follow the path in perfect sync.

As part of the German World Record display the drones spelled out Intel's famous logo in the night sky in LED lights.

For the Californian display, the firm had to gain special exemption from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, after outlining the capabilities of the technology, as well as running a number of test flights, using a single operator to control the drones.

But Intel has much bigger aspirations for the displays, potentially growing the display force to ten times the number of drones.

"That's really what I see in future," said Krzanich.