A new unofficial world record for the fastest drone has just been set... but it was far from plain sailing. Pro Drone Hub carefully built a high-speed drone, and after losing it on around the 50th run, came up with an interesting theory about why they lost it, which suggests some very high speed (but also raises the question "why not add an AirTag?")
The record-breaking speed of 453mph (730 km/h) claimed in the video (below) are, of course, just based on the creators and are not verified.
Specialist saw-tooth propellers crafted from carbon are part of the unique design that achieved the speed of this missile-like drone, which is called Blackbird.
The team at the Pro Drone Hub decided that the issue with their drone might be the Doppler shift – which is quite a claim.
Doppler is the "neeeeeerrrooowm" effect created by sound waves when vehicles pass at high speed because the center of the sound is spreading from in circles keeps moving, so those circles don't seem to come from the same point relative to where the listener is standing, making the sound uneven.
The same principle is true for radio waves, but the speed of light is a LOT higher, so making the claim that radio is affected is quite a lot (humans need an object to hit around 30,000 kilometres per second to notice the effect).
However, digital video – and the team appear to be using a DJI OM4 system – is compressed into tiny digital pieces, and it's possible that much lower speeds can be enough to break the stream.
Other technical issues seem more likely though, and two alternatives are postulated by the team.
Commenters on the YouTube videos might have been closer too: OriginalCircuit said "It's more likely battery or solder related, pushing 200A, you could have just melted the solder off the terminals."
Builders Aidan and Ben seem to be in a race to reach the speed of sound (767mph), having previously posted a 388mph drone.
The Guinness World record is currently held by South African father-and-son duo Luke and Mike Bell, who set a speed of 657.59 km/h (408 mph) in January this year.
The Pro Drone Hub team also says "They'll say it's unofficial because it didn't land in one piece" though the drone essentially survives. It doesn't look, though, like the batteries are going to be reusable after the speed run that hits 640kph (397mph) upwind.
A downwind run (730kph) is averaged against it for a more official 685kph or 425mph.
If speed is your thing, you might not quite hit these numbers with some of the best FPV drones in my guide, but you can be more confident that the batteries won't catch fire in the drones I've recommended!
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