When Red Bull partnered with Dutch Drone Gods for an imaging drone that could keep up with a Formula 1 race car, they created the world’s fastest camera drone. But it didn’t take long for it to lose that title. Now, a South African father and son duo, Luke and Mike Bell, has proudly claimed that title with a drone that does over 400 km/h easily. Considering how they do not have the advantage of the F1 development team advising on the material, that was quite a feat.
After devoting months to design, engineering, and testing the duo has created a super sleek drone that does over 500 km/h (311 mph). But 500 isn’t the official record. The duo’s attempt at the world’s fastest drone was adjudicated by Guinness World Records and Luke Bell and Mike Bell are now responsible for “the fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled (RC) quadcopter” with a recorded speed of 480.23 km/h (298.47 mph). The record was set on April 21, 2024.
While Luke and Mike Bell’s drone, which is a second version dubbed Peregreen 2, is primarily designed to be to beat the F1 drone, it is not an imaging drone. It is an FPV drone. So, it may sound like they are not in the same category as Red Bull x Dutch Drone Gods’ creation. But Luke isn’t done after securing the world record; the duo proceeds to create a new canopy with obvious aerodynamic disadvantages to allow it to be a true camera drone.
Even with this new not-so-aero-friendly canopy, the drone did over 400 km/h (249 mph) easily. If that’s not enough, Luke subsequently installed an Insta360 GO 3 action camera on it, further adding to the aerodynamic disadvantage. However, it is still as fast. To put things in perspective, the Red Bull imaging drone makes a top speed of over 350 km/h (217 mph).
However, to be fair, the F1 drone is not all about speed; it is about how quick and how incredibly maneuverable it is. It does 0-300 km/h (186 mph) in mere 4 seconds. I guess it is not quite 100% fair comparison.
Images: YouTube (Luke Maximo Bell).
