Drones

Video: World's fastest quadcopter smashes Guinness speed record

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The Peregreen 2 controlled by Luke Bell has flown into the Guinness World record books
Luke Bell
The Peregreen 2 controlled by Luke Bell has flown into the Guinness World record books
Luke Bell
After numerous prototypes burst into flames, Luke and Mark Bell designed and built a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter that was clocked at nearly 300 mph
Luke Bell
The Peregreen 2's outer shell, transparent nose and aero tail are 3D printed, as is the launch stand
Luke Bell
The Peregreen 2 world speed record holder (left) with last year's first attempt (right)
Luke Bell
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Last year, a mechanical engineer set a Guinness World Record for the fastest battery-powered RC quadcopter, which was clocked at 224 mph. Now that record has been smashed by a custom-made drone that clocked nearly 300 mph.

In fact, Luke Bell – an aerial videographer and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa – built a quadcopter called the Peregreen last year that managed to beat Ryan Lademann's record time, averaging 247 mph over 100 m (328 ft) in both directions.

That quadcopter was built with help from his father, Mike Bell – who was also called upon to help create a bigger, badder and faster version called the Peregreen 2.

As you can see from the video below, the actual build process proved supremely frustrating due to many technical issues often resulting in fires – a lot of fires – along with bothersome flight instability. Such setbacks eventually prompted a complete redesign. More aero tests out of a car window followed ahead of a successful fire-free test flight.

The final build features a carbon-fiber frame and 3D-printed outer shell/tail, APC 7x11E props, T-Motor Velox 3115 900KV motors, APD 120A 12S ESCs, two 1,800-mAh LiPo battery packs, a Matek F405-HDTE flight controller and a Matek HCS-150 current sensor.

The Peregreen 2 zipped from zero to 186 mph in two seconds, on its way up to a top speed of 317 mph – though the fastest average recorded over four runs was 298.47 mph (480 km/h), and it's this speed that's been validated by Guinness as a new world record.

Footage of the record flight was captured by the drone courtesy of an Insta 360 Go 3 actioncam mounted in the transparent nose, with Bell using FPV goggles and a handheld controller to fly it.

We threw down the gauntlet after the previous world record, and we're doing it again – "over to you, rest of the drone world – can you beat that?" In the meantime, have a look at Mike Bell's design and development video below.

Source: Luke Bell

View gallery - 4 images
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9 comments
Shane Kennedy
When does a quadcopter become a VTOL missile or an aeroplane ?
Adrian Akau
I enjoyed the video. Thank you for the article.
Ed Clark
Very cool!
Treon Verdery
I am very uninformed but the front facing part of the quadcopter looks highly functional, the back of the quadcopter though looks flat or blunt, making a place where airswirls/votexes would cause drag. numerous back-of-object/back of car/airplane vortex shedders have been published, including winglets. Putting a vortex shedder, possibly something as simple as a half-sphere with an annular bulge, called a prandtl sphere on the back of the drone could cause greater aerodynamic efficiency and higher velocity. Another possible thing to heighten the very highest velocity at an interval of a few seconds or a minute is putting a high farad, high amp, supercapacitor at the drone. a supercapacitor with a very lightweight diode voltage multiplier circuit (8-18 3mm diodes size) then causes higher RPM, at sustained or heightened newtons of energy. It is possible, although I do not know, that coating the propellers and drone with a friction minimizing polymer or wax, like whats called "white graphite" surface clinging nanoparticles/microparticles would reduce drag. then, as an alternative, it might have utility that the propellers have a coating on them that has whats called high elasticity collision attribute, as an example of what that does, consider a drumstick percussing a drum, an inelastic collision absorbs all the drumsticks energy, and a highly elastic collision omits absorbing much energy, and returns most energy. As a superaffordable drone surface and propeller treatment a very high elasticity superball could be dissolved at a solvent and utilized to dip-coat the propellers, or, with a very dilute solution, spray coat the drone body with multiple layers of dissolved superball.
Ranscapture
@Treon , lol, if you’re very uninformed, then I’m a cucumber.
guzmanchinky
Could this guy single handedly win the war in Ukraine with these things?
Daishi
It's kind of wholesome that this is a father/son project.
michael_dowling
guzmanchinky : Yeah,I was thinking along those lines as well. Such a drone carrying an explosive charge would be very useful to the Ukrainians in their war against the Russians.
ReservoirPup
To win a war you need a bit more than a cool or even a super cool gadget.