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