How to design the world’s fastest drone! | Guinness Record Holder

My Son and I set out break the Guinness World Record for the worlds fastest quadcopter drone. This is the story of the design process.
Here is Luke’s video • How I Built the NEW Wo...
The Guinness Record www.guinnessworldrecords.com/...
Kudos to @billster7100 @quadmovr and @dutchdronegods • World's Fastest Camera... who were inspiration and @quadstardrones for doing the spadework to get the rules and verification process established with Guinness.
Music 'Age of Wonder' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au • 'Age of Wonder' [Cinem... 'Filaments' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au • 'Filaments' [Classical... 'Watch my World burn' CO.AG Music • Watch my World burn . ...
Video timestamps:
0:00 intro
0:40 lets get the Guinness Record
1:27 frame size
2:34 electronic speed controller placement
4:16 fiery test flights
4:59 back to the pencil
5:41 twin batteries
6:06 wind tunnel made easy
6:13 final ESC placement
6:35 battery wobble
6:48 filament heat testing
7:10 centred thrust axis
7:23 vents
7:51 body joints
8:18 canopy
8:29 3D printing
8:52 streamline shaping
9:37 camera
10:03 Guinnes Witnesses
10:18 little n big brother fly together
10:51 lid clip
11:11 lid comes loose
11:38 tail LED light
12:57 best speed runs
14:07 new world record
14:20 peregreen 3

[@RobertGracie]

So you decided to take on Red Bull and crush them, what a badass the both of you are!

[@grampafpv]

It's a totally different system. This drone can not stay flying as long as red bulls drone.

[@TinyBearTim]

@@grampafpvthe speed record has nothing to do with flight time

[@timmieskills]

Redbulls drone was never about getting a top speed world record? 2 different drones for 2 different purposes

[@grampafpv]

@TinyBearTim read the comment I replied to.. keep up bro..🙅‍♂️

[@TheMrMikeo]

@@grampafpv I think it can fly 7km at 350phh so it could in theory track the red bull car although the camera probably isn’t as good

[@tomsixsix]

The very idea of 9000W motor/battery power in a product that small is just absurd. Amazing work!

[@harzerhexenmeister2709]

Its absolutely insane. I built fast drones myself but never Had anything over 4500W

[@ZirothTech]

What a beautiful video - Incredible engineering, clear explanations, and a father son project. Doesn't get much better than that! Great work both of you, a well deserved record.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@Mike-Bell]

... love your channel 👌

[@notbigbrad]

Think i found my new favorite channel. Having in depth technical description and great prodcution is rare nowadays, great to see the design process, would never have thought to test aerodynamics out of a window haha. Keep making videos this good, and analysis this engaging.

[@Mike-Bell]

Wow, thanks! 🤩 more good stuff to come

[@kay834]

@@Mike-Bell what is that 3d software? great video !

[@Mike-Bell]

@@kay834 I use Blender. Open source and free

[@sUASNews]

@@Mike-Bell My mind is bent at just how skillful you are with Blender, that alone is award worthy.

[@Mike-Bell]

@@sUASNews thanks 🤩

[@Moshington]

The left handed guy who uses a shorty pencil is the guy you should worry about.

[@Mike-Bell]

😂

[@mokoepa]

😂 😂

[@PierreBoniface]

I feel almost vindicated seeing someone else do their rapid drone prototyping in Blender, and especially your line that; "Success is achieving both excellence in performance, and esthetics" is something I've cought a lot of heat over from the pure CAD guys. Amazing work all-round!

[@PrestonMayer]

Congrats to you and your son on breaking the record!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks!! 😃

[@Moshington]

The fastest father/son duo on KZbin! And in the world! Congrats! Love your work.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks! 😃

[@seldoon_nemar]

I had a very uncomforable laugh at 12 hp in a 10" frame. The US Department of Defense is going to be giving this video a good number of views i think

[@AndrewShaidurov]

Ukraine is here first 😏

[@wiltse0]

That was my first thought, The military application is very obvious.

[@ehjones]

Small drones are practically undetectable and inescapable at much more conservative speeds anyway. Being cheap, easy, high range and having resilience to jamming would be more important than 500kph+ speed.

[@2MeterLP]

@@ehjones Against stationary targets, yes. However, this high velocity drone could also be effective against helicopters and some planes.

[@pongmaster123]

@@2MeterLP no, because you forgot the payload.

[@robloxian1014]

This is AMAZING! Congrats on the accomplishment… a good thing that you documented everything, which is a great thing to do in engineering. Great job once again!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you so much!! 😃

[@dannyboyy31]

From someone who can barely make a paper aeroplane, this is fascinating. Watching the design evolve to optimise the aerodynamics, airflow, and centre of gravity is amazing. It must have been so rewarding seeing it achieve such crazy speeds 😄

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you enjoyed it! 😃

[@GmanBB]

You are the luckiest father alive. What a blessing to work together with the son.

[@elias4214]

And a son! Living their best live moments:)

[@Aitelly]

congratulations To you and your Son

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks ☺️ always nice to get a comment from you

[@canadiangemstones7636]

Fantastic video, thanks for documenting your work!

[@mattheww9656]

Thank you for sharing your family project. Great video. I hope it inspires more father/son projects.

[@Mike-Bell]

More to come!

[@snorlax4021]

I loved your previous video's but this is something else. Love it, you are amazing.

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you like them!

[@sUASNews]

This is an amazing video, thanks very much for creating it. Comgratulations to you both from KZN

[@PalmliX]

As an FPV pilot for many years, this gave me chills. Inspired!

[@PavloLukashuk]

In general, the idea of ​​such a device is not new,🤷‍♂️ it was already there, but you guys have brought the project to a really working fast state!👍 Thanks !

[@redacted1946]

nobody said this was a new idea

[@tiitsaul9036]

Wow. Amazing entineering and really well presented. Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@garthlee8166]

10/10 Stunning achievement for both of you , and being able to keep it "in the family" and have FUN together as well as keep on learning , innovating and supporting is Mega Brilliant, Well Done

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you! Will do!

[@blue_evolution_studio_official]

This is amazing! It's great to know, that you have used Blender to 3d model this incredible creation 😆

[@WHIT4CROW]

Amazing work Mike and good video. You need to do more works like this. Keep it up❤

[@saltvatten]

Great stuff, Mike. Excellent

[@BreezyDaGoat235]

i’m confused? just 24k views and 61.2k subscribers? for this level of production? truly underrated!!!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks I value the concern 😊 and your comment. It more case of with youtube getting 3.7mill new videos uploaded each day that it really takes a lot to stand out above all that noise. But after a couple of years doing this I think this video is going to give me the catapult boost I have been waiting for. The subscribe rate on this video and type of story has gone nuts and is super high which is fantastic recognition for my efforts.

[@hektoram]

Totally agree!!!

[@_BL4CKB1RD_]

This is so neat to see the wonderful engineering behind this. You guys are so cool. 😊

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you 🤗

[@billynomates920]

no one tells you the drawbacks of being an engineer. i have zero interest in drones or drone technology and yet.... air squid go brrrrrrrrrr!

[@roxasparks]

Air squid yay!!!😂😂😂

[@jtreg]

absolutely amazing. loved the use of Blender, this has so much in it... look forward to seeing more!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks a ton!

[@KaygeeFromNanotrasen]

Learning breakdowns from you is awesome, please keep making more!

[@Mike-Bell]

We will!

[@UR_HR]

Great film, and great teamwork and perseverance... Well done on the record!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@B0M0A0K]

Wonderful design, explanation and experience. So well deserved.

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@Leif_YT]

Thank you for sharing this detailed and impressive video. It gives such a beautiful insight into the whole project & engineering that went into it.

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@maudessen573]

What a tremendous accomplishment, Mike and Luke! Congratulations to you both on this amazing feat! You’ve created a thing of beauty, and I can’t wait to see the next iteration. Although I am not a trained engineer, I was able to follow your clear descriptions and appreciate the problems and how you were solving them. Simply remarkable. I am so happy for you both!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks Maud. I always look forward and enjoy your comments and loyalty.

[@maddercat]

I just built my first vertical frame and it flew away on me, it might be because my props are so close together as you were saying. Fascinating to hear more construction detail and the problems you had with your escs. also how you made your camera/nosecone and airshaper fascinating thanks a lot!

[@stephaniejoubert365]

Awesome video! I particularly enjoy the animations. Well done Luke and Mike - dream team 💪

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks so much!

[@belliduradespicio8009]

absolutely incredible engineering

[@cyberphox1]

Awesome father and son collaboration 🇿🇦🇿🇦

[@jeromejooste3493]

Mike and Luke, I'm sitting here in Joburg and so proud that you guys from my hometown have achieved this incredible milestone. Great videos from you both and have already shared the links with other drone enthusiasts. Also must add that I love the fact that you designed the drone with Blender. 👍👍👍. When I saw Blender I figured you'd move over to FreeCad but I was wrong.

[@Mike-Bell]

Hi Jerome thanks for sharing the video. We are both ex Joburg. Blender has proven excellent for this project and is a must for animations. Blender is awesome. What is your filed/software used?

[@boatbuddy]

Well done! Well done! Absolute mind blown!

[@gangadharaiholimath9488]

wow, really amazing engineering.

[@ziyaadmajiet]

This is incredible Mike well done

[@arnaudlopez4351]

Truly amazing video! Tanks for that!

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you liked it!

[@tsungxu]

This is fantastic. Please do more breakdowns of future Peregrine development processes!

[@Mike-Bell]

Certainly will be making more …

[@tsungxu]

great to hear it. The need to distribute the PDB/motor controllers is something I've never seen on a hobbyist drone before. Also, you guys have the same heat gun as me, and good to see your solid Blender skills!

[@kaviator]

Truly phenomenal! Bravo to you and your son, very inspiring video, beautiful work, and completely bonkers! Just WOW!!!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@user-yu3ck8ei1w]

This is just incredible on an engineering scale and on many other levels.

[@feelfree.1]

Beautiful engineering 👍🏼

[@24-7gpts]

Awesome work and i love the visuals

[@Mike-Bell]

Im glad you enjoyed it ⏩

[@Zenobeus]

Beautiful explanation, thanks for taking the time.

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@frisk151]

Incredible achievement!!!

[@antonyneil]

Beautiful! Congratulations

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you so much 😀

[@burstyou4290]

Your video is so much better, nice explaination. Insane skills

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you think so!

[@RaspberryWhy]

Great video and many congratulations on this incredible achievement

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you so much 😀

[@brokens1097]

Incredible. The headaches and cost of prototyping and manufacturing on a cnc machine twenty years ago vs. the options of today has mind blowing potential.

[@Mike-Bell]

That is so true. The power and capabilities of software and tools available today to anyone with drive and initiative is staggering.

[@ScrubsIsee]

Besides your world record and your engineering skills … your storytelling is marvellous! Thank you for sharing your design process.

[@Mike-Bell]

Wow thanks 😀

[@bdfybdfy100]

Good job! Very cool project!!

[@bdfybdfy100]

I asked you a question on Quora. Please read. Sorry, I sent a message. I did not find any of your other contacts.

[@billster7100]

Excellent video! The animations were awesome and that definitely covered everything I would have liked to pick your brain about. It's always nice to hear about others design philosophy. Also I just have to mention some funny coincidences. I'm currently getting my mechatronics degree too, nice job Luke! The other one is that I had originally named my speed record project the peregrine falcon back in 2019. What are the chances?

[@rickoshea8138]

Awesome design, execution and performance, Mike Your Bambu printer may be able to print STEP files, which will behave like very fine mesh STL files, although that depends on the slicer. Great to see South Africans setting records. Netjies gedaan.

[@Mike-Bell]

Dankie. Flippin lekker om SA bietjie te showcase. Blender doesnt work with STEP files unfortunately but it is perfect for the animation I make and it makes fantastic drone designs too.

[@pseudotasuki]

Yup, Bambu Studio does support STEP. That's my go-to format when working with designs that have tight tolerances. Plus they're much easier for others to reverse-engineer.

[@pseudotasuki]

​@@Mike-BellYeah, Blender works exclusively with meshes. STEP is for CAD.

[@cs9260]

What CAD program do you use in addition to Blender? Great work and dankie for sharing.@@pseudotasuki

[@pseudotasuki]

@@cs9260 Autodesk Fusion.

[@travisk5589]

The amp draw and ability of those batteries to discharge that fast is insane.

[@Mike-Bell]

Sure is. Next version 200c batteries straight from the factory.

[@CortVermin]

why did you not put the motorcontroller boards on each wing? seems like the perfect placement from behind the screen :D

[@munzlp]

Here before this blows up. What am amazing feat of engineering, so glad to be here!

[@ALECDRAY]

Amazing video, this was a joy to watch!

[@Mike-Bell]

So glad! and your comment is a joy to see 😊

[@AwareOCE]

Incredible work, you guys pulled off something really impressive here! Im very excited to see your next iteration

[@Mike-Bell]

Us too!

[@alexvbrain]

great job guys!

[@blueredcorer]

Great explanation. Love the iterative design approach.

[@Mike-Bell]

Great to hear!

[@Henrik229]

Great job! 👍

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks!

[@TheVirIngens]

very, very cool! how are you doing the control mixing? i.e. converting from torque commands to motor thrusts? if by any chance you have a mixer that outputs something like 95% of max thrust + some small differential consisting of roll/pitch/yaw components -- there is something better! using a QP solver you can find the thrust commands giving max forward thrust while still satisfying torque inputs. for such small problems the solution can be found in fractions of a millisecond, even on tiny processors. If you haven't yet done so this might get you another couple kph! get in touch if you wanna know more, i have done something extremely similar at work :)

[@redacted1946]

its simply the mixer in betaflight. there will always be a small loss of power as the pid controller with airmode enabled can only be active and stabilize the quad if it dials back from full throttle on at least one of the motors. this is why its most efficient to make the quad as aerodynamic as possible at the angle of attack its going to fly at and a good tune. since the drone doesnt fly completely straight forward but very slightly tilted up any drag on the body will push the body up and the pid controller will cut power to the bottom motors to compensate.

[@Montso]

Recently joined the SA fpv community, half-way through UCT mechatronics, I guess what's left is Guinness Record to match Luke hahaha. Amazing video💯😂

[@Robot_Child_Productions]

Love your work. So cool 😎

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you very much!

[@Jon-cw8bb]

Congratulations!

[@Jon-cw8bb]

This has absolutely blown me away in terms of how effective your designing and surfacing was of v2 without doing aero computation. Eagerly awaiting v3!

[@manishrajkunwor]

Amazing job…keep it up

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you, we will

[@jb0433628]

Amazing project

[@ei23de]

Awesome! Amazing to see the use of Blender for design! Open Source FTW! What OS you are using? Just curious...

[@ryanellis4383]

My university drone team may be attempting this record next fall. Been doing some research, and I want to commend your component selection! It's been really hard finding any configuration that performs higher in thrust simulations.

[@Mike-Bell]

Luke and I will follow your progress if you post the outcome online

[@Large_Sarge]

Thank you for such a well spoken and informative video. I am not the sharpest crayon in the pack but I was able to follow along well. Congratulations on your world record!

[@Iroquois_Pliskin]

😮 that is amazing

[@kaplislemesis4789]

Can ye bois add color codes for the different measures. Ideally also reserve green/yellow/red if any value diverges from normal operation 10%/20%/30% or something better, that you know of.

[@HotTacticalBoyfriendOfficial]

Amazing!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks!

[@IsaacKuo]

I wonder if drag could be reduced by placing the props on long thin shafts angled inward to the central body. That way, the motors would be in the central body. You wouldn't have the drag of the pods, and the "wings" would be replaced with thin shafts. Since each shaft is along its line of thrust, there's no need for the cantilever strength of the "wings".

[@gabrielahman764]

You and your son are great men sir!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thank you kindly

[@masterplayer5982]

Wow that was Awsome and inspiring

[@Mike-Bell]

So glad to hear that! There will be more to come

[@SaltyMcBoatFace]

congratulations on the record gentlemen! well deserved! , also wanted to say whenever i see something like this it makes me think about what kind of tech governments could implement into a project like this with unlimited funding & huge teams of people working on them , i would not atall be suprised to learn if they already have drones that can reach over mach 1 or more

[@Mike-Bell]

Yes I’m convinced the Ukrainians have been working on this and kept it all quiet. The limitation is not the body going mach 1 but the props tips and when that happens the rpm just plummets from the drag. For a test flight with 5.25 inch props that happened at about 49,000 rpm and 410kmh. The rpm and thrust just died suddenly. No obvious noise but the speed dropped a lot

[@mozkitolife5437]

Nothing better than a father and son venture 🎉

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

Congratulations on building such a beautiful machine! Would be interesting to explore how durable your design/build is with the goal of characterizing operational lifespan and maintenance/repair costs. I'd expect optimizing these would present a entirely new set of engineering challenges. Of course, understandably, you and your son might instead prefer to focus efforts on just going faster.

[@pauljones9150]

I wonder what cool smooth videos you could get!

[@mikedsp4099]

Well done guys, this is awesome to have local guys pushing the limits like this, very inspiring! Did you ever consider running CFD on the model, and do you think that would have helped the design direction?

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks Mike. Up till this point the level of technology is such that big gains have been possible through iterative exploration. But from here on the gains will become smaller and harder to achieve and require more sophisticated optimisations and we are running wind tunnel simulations for further speed improvements. And we have product manufacturers who are interested in supplying us with optimised components to go faster. If you have CFD skills I would be interested to know how you would approach this.

[@maytronix7201]

What in the world? I somehow stumbled upon the coolest and best-presented KZbin channel I have seen in years. Well done!

[@Mike-Bell]

Wow, thanks!

[@aerobyrdable]

Greetings from an Arkansas engineer/aviation enthusiast, Mike! Congratulations on your success and I loved your excellent presentation. I'm really looking forward to seeing your CFD-optimized revision-- no doubt you'll be able to make some solid improvements there! My money's on much longer trailing edges for the struts, 'bulbing' the nose a bit and trading the fin for basically a long cone, ha. If you don't mind some input, I do have a couple other thoughts for where one might look to keep pushing the boundaries from where you're at now (though I've no doubt there was a great deal of consideration already given to some of these that didn't fit neatly into your video). First one is weight. Frankly, you guys have already done pretty well with this one-- not a lot of fat to trim, there, but I'd be giving serious thought to how I could start cutting grams off this thing ('Do I *really* need all four motor screws? Could I make my fuselage lighter by carbon-wrapping a vase-mode version of it? Could I make my cables shorter so I'm not carrying all this copper?) Second is aerodynamic cleanliness. There's something here which may not become immediately clear from your CFD simulations. These models do not always do an excellent job at modeling either surface roughness (such as print layer lines) or the transition from laminar to turbulent flow across your model. You're really gonna want to be sure your craft is aerodynamically smooth! To give an example, it's fairly common for sailplanes to have leading edge wipers to remove bugs and dirt from their wings while in flight. These devices make about a 5% difference in performance. Your application, being small, is low reynolds numbers, which means you have the potential to promote more laminar flow across your airframe if you can design for it carefully! Again, I'd love to see a polished carbon fuselage for this. Finally-- props. For me, I'd be giving a hard look at these. No easy shortcuts here, but off the dome, questions I might have: 3 blades for more power without tip transonics? Custom prop pitch and profiles optimized for my flight profile? I would also bet good money that carbon props would perform better than injection-molded ones (less weight, higher stiffness). Vacuum-infused ideally, but forged carbon may be nearly as good and cheaper. Easy composites has excellent videos for this, as does TechIngredients. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions regarding what I've written, should it be of interest. I'd love to see this thing hit 500kmh(550?). Again, well done and congratulations on the win!

[@DanielBernstein-hy7yq]

Maybe tow steered composites and custom aerostructurally optimized geometry of frame and motors for v4? In my experience, ADFLOW is a lot faster and more accurate than airshaper and it can do shape optimization

[@ioannisbatas1614]

Superb !!!

[@GW-nh9qc]

Absolut hervorragend👍👍👍😀. Meinen Glückwunsch.

[@kendinesponsor]

cong dr, im watching in turkey. nice project

[@autonoob]

Very nice 👍

[@rowanwinter]

Very well done!

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks Rowan 🤙🏻

[@guinnessworldrecords]

Amazing video, Mike. So insightful!

[@Mike-Bell]

Glad you think so!

[@reptethetetlen]

such a humble choice of title! I mean you can never know if there isn't a faster drone on another planet

[@Mike-Bell]

😂

[@MichaelStonely]

Awesome project! Looks like a fun one. Curious if you have done the math for what impact a carbon fiber exterior (or any alternative) could have on weight. The shell sure looks pretty light already.

[@Mike-Bell]

The low hanging fruit development areas are still batteries and aerodynamics so thats the next version. And interestingly induced drag is near negligible at 500. You pay the price of weight in battery drain and manoeuvring. The angle of attack of 1 degree is all you need for body lift. It’s basically a wingless VTOL. I’ll be explaining this in the next video. So weight savings will increase speed because of a longer speed boost but not induced drag savings. Weight will get serious attention in version 4🤣 And when we get serious competition. 🤙🏻

[@U_gen_3000]

Congrats. Cool, great design. Could I ask, why have you used Blender for CAD modeling and not smth. specific?

[@Mike-Bell]

Thanks. I am a retired architect and have an Autocad Sketchup Revit Lumion background so Blender is a natural follow on. My primary need is animation so Blender is a must. Besides Blender is fantastic software. It can do pretty much all things 3d. What is your field/ software?

[@RollercoastersatWales]

What an amazing achievement, Red bull must be in tears!

[@PavloLukashuk]

07:30 ... APU inlet ,this good idea!👍