Luke Bell and his father Mike Bell from South Africa set a world record by creating the fastest battery-powered quadcopter. The custom-made drone reached a speed of 480.23 km/h Guinness Book of Records confirmed that enthusiasts have achieved «the highest speed with a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter».
Luke describes building the drone as his most challenging project yet. From the very beginning of testing the Peregrine 2 drone’s battery, small fires occurred due to the high current that heated the battery to 130 °C. The motor wires also caught fire during full-load testing.
After 3D printing the final model and assembling all the parts, Luke made his first flight, which caused another fire. This failure almost made him give up on the project, but he decided to redesign all the parts and try again. After more months of trial and error, he made a successful flight, but it wasn’t a record-breaking one. This meant even more improvements to the drone, more powerful motors, and other tweaks to achieve maximum speed.
The previous drone, claimed to be the world’s fastest camera drone, was created by Dutch UAV manufacturer Dutch Drone Gods in cooperation with Red Bull. The Red Bull Drone 1 camera drone reached speeds of more than 350 km/h, and its task was to keep up with the «Formula 1» Max Verstappen car during the race. It is noticeable that Peregrine 2 is very similar in shape and aerodynamics to Red Bull Drone 1.
The new record came close to the large mandrel, which its manufacturers also call the fastest in the world. Huntress II drone by WaveAerospace from the United States, equipped with a jet engine, reaches a speed of 483 km/h. It is a large four-meter-long machine weighing 50 kg. Unlike its smaller competitors, whose battery runs out in minutes, the Huntress II is quite durable and can fly for up to two hours at an altitude of 6 km.
Source: PetaPixel