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Transportation Idle

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.

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Photographer Sets World Record for Fastest Drone Flight at 298 MPH

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  • by WorBlux ( 1751716 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @12:40PM (#64467125)

    I'm sure many military drones are faster.

    • by CrankyFool ( 680025 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @01:07PM (#64467177)
      Worth noting that technically it's "fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter." There are a whole lot of military drones faster than 298 MPH (see https://owlcation.com/social-s... [owlcation.com] ) but I don't believe any of the known ones are quadcopters. (Nor, to keep this accomplishment in mind, were any of these built by a father and son team almost literally in their garage for almost literally no money)
      • by ThumpBzztZoom ( 6976422 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @01:33PM (#64467219)

        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.

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      But they're talking about quad copters.

    • 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.

    • Normals need things kept simple as possible even when that detracts from precision.

  • by andrewbaldwin ( 442273 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @12:45PM (#64467133)

    " 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)

    by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @12:57PM (#64467153)
    I really enjoyed watching this recently. World's Fastest Camera Drone Vs F1 Car (ft. Max Verstappen)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • Usual size (Score:4, Interesting)

    by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @01:00PM (#64467163)

    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.

    • 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

    • by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
      18 awg can handle 14-22 amps depending on the temperature rating of the insulation and connection, and those standards assume an enclosed appliance you could probably push more than that in a speeding drone with a lot of air cooling the wire
    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )

      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.

  • ...then I expect ICBMs will be the fastest ones for quite some time. Unless you insist on cameras being attached.

  • Nostalgie de la boue (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dsgrntlxmply ( 610492 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @04:34PM (#64467409)
    As a builder of model planes and rockets in my youth, it was nostalgic and humorous to see his out-the-car-window method for testing stability (center of pressure vs center of mass). At an age with no direct access to cars, we did this by tying a string around the rocket tube at the balance point, then swinging it around to see if it tumbled. My first programming exercise was to mechanize the Barrowman equations for center of pressure estimation, on a Wang programmable calculator.
  • What's next? The sound barrier? LOL
  • by smash ( 1351 )
    The USAF would like to have a word with their QF-4 Phantom drones.
  • by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Sunday May 12, 2024 @10:35PM (#64467865)

    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.

    • by dougmc ( 70836 )

      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.

  • Burned, fell over, then sank into the swamp.

    BUT THE FOURTH DRONE! THE FOURTH DRONE, LADDIE! THAT drone clocked near three hundred!

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