Game of Drones? Well, there's at least a dragon in the house for 2026 Commonwealths

They're set in two different universes - but this year they’re being celebrated the same way.

The new House of the Dragon series and the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games have both been honoured via a Game of Thrones dragon which has soared over the city for two mornings in a row.

The 3D model of Syrax, the dragon of Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Emma D’Arcy) in the series, is in Glasgow to promote season three of the hit HBO Original show, as well as to celebrate the opening of the multi-sports event.

Operator and pilot Dennis Gutowsky, from German aeronautic company Airstage, said it was ‘very special’ to fly the dragon in Glasgow.

‘We built this beautiful flying dragon. Her name is Syrax, and this thing has 23 moving parts, which all work together,’ he said.

‘We have moving rudders, we have moving propellers, a moving tail, and also moving wings.’

The model was originally created and flew over London for the season three launch. It was created using 3D scans from the series production.

Weighing 13kg and constructed over three months, the model required a highly specialist team of 14 people working on it for almost 3,000 hours.

Its 23 dexterous moving parts create realistic movement across an eight-metre wingspan, while flight is achieved with intricate impellers built into the dragon’s legs.

Its detail and texture was constructed from vacuum-formed Depron foam around a carbon fibre and aluminium skeleton, finished by hand with airbrushed paintwork to achieve a detailed and realistic surface appearance.

The main inventor at Airstage took the idea for the model from Da Vinci’s original flying machine.

Now more than 500 years later, the company has created a flying model that flaps and soars like a real dragon would.