The title for the fastest drone has changed hands once again. YouTuber and engineer Luke Maximobell and his father set a Guinness World Record with the Peregreen V4. The 3D-printed quadcopter reached 657.59 km/h in a run with a tailwind.
The official score was based on the two-run average verified by Guinness. The team flew in both directions according to the usual procedure to compensate for wind. Independent witnesses accompanied the tests. The average speed was 657 km/h, surpassing the previous record of 626 km/h. This had been set just one month earlier by Australian aeronautical engineer Ben Biggs with his Blackbird drone.
The Peregreen V4 also gained speed against the wind. In the opposite direction, the top speed was 599 km/h. That is 14 km/h more than the previous model, which reached 585 km/h. Maximobell attributes this to advances in aerodynamics and propulsion.
The Peregreen V4 was developed over more than two years of iterative work. Father and son combined CFD models, tests, and rapid prototypes from 3D printing. They manufactured the drone body on a Bambu Lab H2D with dual extruder. The printer combines two materials in one component, such as PETG, PA6-CF, or TPU. The team used TPU for the camera mount and landing elements, among other things. Hard and flexible plastics can be combined in the tail and camera mount to absorb shocks and remain stable.
Maximobell cites the larger build volume and dual-nozzle system as key to printing the body in one piece. This is intended to smooth the aerodynamics and improve the surface quality. In addition, the team sanded and polished the fiber-reinforced surface and shortened the propeller blades from 7×5 inches to about 6 inches.
For the drive, the team chose T-Motor 3120 brushless motors after testing with AOS Supernova and AMX 2826. The winding was increased from 800 to 900 KV to increase the speed. The developers optimized the outer shape using CFD via the AirShaper platform to reduce air resistance.
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