To make space his cars have been relegated to the driveway as the Boeing 737 simulator takes up the entire single-width garage. 

But the swarm doesn’t know how, exactly, it will perform the task before it’s released. As William Roper of the Department of Defense explained in a statement:

Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature.

Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.

Releasing drones from a fast-moving jet isn’t straightforward, as high speeds and turbulence buffet them, causing them damage. But the Perdix drone, originally developed by MIT researchers and named after a Greek mythical character who was turned into a partridge, is now in its sixth iteration and able to withstand speeds of Mach 0.6 and temperatures of -10 °C during release.

A Washington Post report last year explained that they had been developed as part of a $20 million Pentagon program to augment the current fleet of military drones. But 53-year-old claims buying the simulator was the best thing he has ever done despite complaints from his wife Wendy.

He’s even turned his hobby into a business charging learner pilots and thrillseekers to experience flying whatever route around the globe they wish.

He said: ‘I was really excited to get it. Of course the cars had to come out, but I was more than happy to reverse those out fast.

‘It’s just a normal width garage, although it is long, and it took a lot of measuring to work out whether it would go.

‘It just about fit in with a bit of a squeeze. I’m so happy it worked out well.