Photographer Sets World Record for Fastest Drone Flight at 298 MPH (petapixel.com) 33
An anonymous reader shared this report from PetaPixel:
A photographer and content creator has set the world record for the fastest drone flight after his custom-made aircraft achieved a staggering 298.47 miles per hour (480.2 kilometers per hour). Guinness confirmed the record noting that Luke Maximo Bell and his father Mike achieved the "fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled (RC) quadcopter."
Luke, who has previously turned his GoPro into a tennis ball, describes it as the most "frustrating and difficult project" he has ever worked on after months of working on prototypes that frequently caught fire. From the very first battery tests for the drone that Luke calls Peregrine 2, there were small fires as it struggled to cope with the massive amount of current which caused it to heat up to over 266 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius). The motor wires also burst into flames during full load testing causing Luke and Mike to use thicker ones so they didn't fail...
After 3D-printing the final model and assembling all the parts, Luke took it for a maiden flight which immediately resulted in yet another fire. This setback made Bell almost quit the project but he decided to remake all the parts and try again — which also ended in fire. This second catastrophe prompted Luke and his Dad to "completely redesign the whole drone body." It meant weeks of work as the new prototype was once again tested, 3D-printed, and bolted together.
Luke, who has previously turned his GoPro into a tennis ball, describes it as the most "frustrating and difficult project" he has ever worked on after months of working on prototypes that frequently caught fire. From the very first battery tests for the drone that Luke calls Peregrine 2, there were small fires as it struggled to cope with the massive amount of current which caused it to heat up to over 266 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius). The motor wires also burst into flames during full load testing causing Luke and Mike to use thicker ones so they didn't fail...
After 3D-printing the final model and assembling all the parts, Luke took it for a maiden flight which immediately resulted in yet another fire. This setback made Bell almost quit the project but he decided to remake all the parts and try again — which also ended in fire. This second catastrophe prompted Luke and his Dad to "completely redesign the whole drone body." It meant weeks of work as the new prototype was once again tested, 3D-printed, and bolted together.
Fastest unclassified drone flight. (Score:3)
I'm sure many military drones are faster.
Re:Fastest unclassified drone flight. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Fastest unclassified drone flight. (Score:5, Insightful)
Worth noting that the headline said "world record for fastest drone flight", which is false regardless of the correct attribution in the article.
It's no different than putting the headline "world record for fastest motorized vehicle" on an article about someone setting a record for 50cc scooters.
Re: (Score:2)
Worth noting that if you add "Not" or "Maybe" to headlines, that would change the meaning as well. But it's completely fucking stupid to believe that words that don't exist in the headline which would change the meaning should somehow be assumed, particularly when one of the two you referred to results in a completely different meaning than the one you explicitly stated.
Re: (Score:2)
Worth noting that you are the one that introduced the concept of adding words that aren't there to change the meaning of headlines. Worth noting that inserting "the" (which is the definite article you said could be left out of headlines) makes the headline as completely false as leaving it out, which I referred to in my previous post because I completely saw your point, and it was fucking idiotic. Worth noting that you resort to calling me pedantic when you were the one who introduced idiotic pedantry into
Re: (Score:2)
What a witty retort. Thanks for confirming that you are as ignorant, scared and stupid as I stated.
No wonder you thought it took 10 minutes to write a 30-second response.
Re: (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
But they're talking about quad copters.
Re: (Score:1)
The military aren't flying noisy arse quadcopters with non-existent payloads. The Guinness book of records are typically quite specific with how they classify their achievements. I doubt you'll find the military beating this particular record, they don't have a use case for a device in this category. When you throw millions of dollars at a problem to build something you typically are building a very different device than what a dude poops out of his 3d printer.
The title was for SEO (Score:2)
Normals need things kept simple as possible even when that detracts from precision.
Perseverance pays (Score:5, Funny)
" Luke took it for a maiden flight which immediately resulted in yet another fire. This setback made Bell almost quit the project but he decided to remake all the parts and try again - which also ended in fire. "
Good on them for keeping on trying.
But I must say it reminds me of the classic scene ** :
"Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up."
** If you need to look that up - you're either too young or insufficiently nerdy -- :-)
On a related note (Score:4, Interesting)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Usual size (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't quote me on this, but I believe that the usual for power transmission in drones to the motor is 18 AWG, which has max transmission of 2.3A. I believe 18 AWG is used because of the weight. So for him to push the required amps would have required a thicker conductor, which in turn adds weight. I'm sure that this can become a headache of trying to balance weight, current required, and the other factors like rotor diameter, drag vs lift calculations, etc.
Good on him for finding a good balance to achieve this speed.
Re: (Score:3)
Your numbers being off aside (typical standard rating is 7A for 18AWG), the actual ampacity of a wire is dependent on a wide variety of factors. The standard is given typically for a temperature rise to the limit of a PVC insulation at 30 degree ambient without derating. Got more than one wire, you need to derate. Got better insulation you can push more current through.
Ultimately there's no hard fixed number, it is application and environment dependent as to how much juice you can actually put through a wir
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Usual size (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So for him to push the required amps would have required a thicker conductor
Sadly it doesn't address this in the headline so we'll never know if they did or not.
If you define 'drone' as a pilotless flying craft (Score:2)
...then I expect ICBMs will be the fastest ones for quite some time. Unless you insist on cameras being attached.
Re:Quadcopter? (Score:5, Informative)
It uses rotors for lift (yes, even at high speed) so it's a "copter" and it's got four of them, so it's a quadcopter.
It doesn't have any aerodynamic planes (i.e. wings) so it's not a "plane" and it certainly doesn't have any rockets.
Nostalgie de la boue (Score:4, Interesting)
Sound Barrier (Score:1)
pfft (Score:2)
Pretty sure it's not a record (Score:3)
If we take an expansive definition of "drone" then rockets going 11 km/sec hold the record.
If we restrict it to endo-atmospheric flight, the recon drone that surfed on top of the SR-71's backside flew at Mach 3.
If we're even more picky, the Air Force converted their surplus F-4s into target drones, and those flow faster than this gizmo.
Re: (Score:2)
Hell, these guys [youtube.com] have hit 548 mph without any engine or motor at all, and without any military backing -- just a lot of carbon fiber and nerves of kevlar.
Obligatory Python Quote (Score:2)
BUT THE FOURTH DRONE! THE FOURTH DRONE, LADDIE! THAT drone clocked near three hundred!