The Guinness World Records entry covers the fastest battery-powered, remote-controlled drone.
After months of trial and error, the amateur remote-controlled drone Peregrine 2, built by Luke and Mike Bell, finally hit a record speed. Luke Bell shared the drone’s technical specs and the obstacles they faced on his YouTube channel. He documented every stage of testing, during which the drone struggled to reach its top speed. Most attempts ended with the drone catching fire, forcing the builders to start over.
How was it?
Unfortunately, they didn’t have a wind tunnel to test the aerial vehicle during the preparatory stages. Instead, the father and son worked with what they had: 3D-printed prototypes, a car, and an open stretch of highway. While one drove, the other held the drone out the window to test how it handled the airflow. Battery tests repeatedly failed until they found an optimal solution.
After finalizing the design, the father and son installed the necessary wiring, motors, and propellers, then sent the drone up for its first test flight. They hadn’t fully accounted for the internal heat generated by the high electric current. When temperatures reached 130 °C, the drone’s wiring caught fire and it crashed to the ground.
After a brief pause, the duo returned to the drawing board, built a second quadcopter, and launched it. This drone also caught fire. According to Luke, that prompted him and his father to “completely redesign the entire body” and change the quadcopter’s design, Popular Science reported. After a few more weeks of work, the engineers decided they finally had a drone ready to set a world record.
At the request of the Guinness World Records, they invited independent witnesses and prepared the Peregrine 2 for takeoff. The drone made four attempts, with the average speed of the two fastest flights reaching 480.23 km/h. The previous record-holder had reached 360.5 km/h.
The Peregrine 2 set world records in two categories. It was also recognized as the fastest drone with an onboard camera that recorded the flights.
“Three months of hard work, failures, and engineering development came down to a few seconds of high-speed flight,” Luke summarized in his video review.
