Game of Thrones dragon soars over city to celebrate Commonwealth Games opening

A Game of Thrones dragon has soared over Glasgow for two mornings in a row in a “very special” display.

The 3D model of Syrax, the dragon of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) in the House of the Dragon series, is in the city to promote season three of the hit HBO Original show, as well as to celebrate the opening of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Operator and pilot Dennis Gutowsky, from German aeronautic company Airstage, said it was “very special” to fly the dragon in Glasgow in celebration of the Commonwealth Games.

Pilot and technician Dennis Gutowsky said the best part about the project was inspiring others (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Jane Barlow

“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.

“It’s very cool to fly a dragon. It’s very special because actually I fly RC planes, and that’s totally different.

“You have to train a lot to fly like like this.”

Pilot and technician Matthias Muthsam with the animatronic model (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Jane Barlow

The dragon was originally created and flew in London for the season 3 launch of House of the Dragon.

It was created using 3D scans from the series production.

Weighing 13kg and built over three months, the flying 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 as well as both the head and tail, and flight is achieved with intricate impellers built into the dragon’s legs. 

The model’s 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 highly detailed and realistic surface appearance.

The dragon model took 3,000 hours and 14 people working on it to complete (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Jane Barlow

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.

Matthias Muthsam, a technician and pilot with Airstage, said: “We started with a 3D model, which we got sent from HBO.

“Then we produced [the dragon] out of them the cut model, and from the cut model, then we plan our next steps.

“That’s mostly carbon fibre and foam, and we have two motors with vectors, so we can reduce the thrust. And yes, it’s all vacuum formed.

The 3D model of Syrax is also in Glasgow to promote season three of the hit HBO Original show (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Jane Barlow

“It’s amazing to be part of the team to build such impressive creatures, and it’s nice to be a part of it.”

Mr Gutowsky added: “My favourite part is actually to inspire other young people. Everyone can be an engineer and do such a big project, and all other people watching a dragon and feel like, ‘wow, that’s beautiful’.”