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| An image of Peregreen 4 in flight |
In the high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled world of drone racing, records are made to be broken. But for engineering pair Mike and Luke Maximo Bell, losing the Guinness World Record for the fastest drone earlier this year was simply a call to action. After being dethroned by Benjamin Biggs and his 626.44 km/h (389.25 mph) craft, the Bells have stormed back, shattering the record and reclaiming their title with a masterclass in iterative design and calculated risk.
Their weapon of choice? The newly modified Peregreen 4, a battery-powered quadcopter that has now earned an even more prestigious title: the fastest battery-powered aircraft ever made, surpassing a record previously held by aerospace giant Rolls-Royce.
Learning from Loss: The Quest for Stability Over Raw Power
The journey back to the top wasn't straightforward. The Bells' previous record attempt, using the Peregreen 3, was a costly lesson. Despite its immense power, the drone was volatile. "We lost seven drones in the process last time," Mike Bell recalls. The culprit? The high-performance AOS Supernova 3220 motors, which, while generating phenomenal thrust, introduced instability.
For the Peregreen 4, the team made a pivotal strategic retreat. They shifted back to the more reliable T-motor 3120 motors, a component they had trusted in their earlier Peregreen 2 model. "The AOS motors gave us more thrust on the bench, but the T-motors offered better stability in the air," Luke Bell explains. "After last time, we chose reliability. We needed a platform that could survive multiple runs." The decision paid off handsomely—throughout the record attempts, they experienced zero motor failures.
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| An infographic showing design changes and resulting gains |
The Devil in the Details: Four Modifications That Made History
The record-breaking run was the result of four key structural changes, each contributing crucial increments of speed and efficiency. The most significant gain came from a clever aerodynamic trick: the addition of custom "spinners."
- The Spinner Revolution: By adding spinners to the motors, the Bells eliminated the blunt, turbulent end of the motor housing, creating a smooth, tapered profile. This single modification smoothed airflow over the drone's body and was responsible for a staggering 30 km/h speed increase.
- Body Sculpting: The entire fuselage was reshaped and hand-sanded to a smoother finish, reducing drag at extreme velocities.
- Propeller Precision: The team trimmed their 7-inch propellers down to approximately 6 inches. This smaller propeller size, paired with the powerful motors, operated more efficiently at the drone's top-end speed.
- Integrated Design: Every change worked in harmony, leading to a remarkable gain in efficiency. The Peregreen 4 achieves its top speed with a peak power draw of 12 kW, a massive improvement over the Peregreen 3's 16.2 kW peak.
"The goal is always to make the air not know the drone is coming," Luke notes. "Every bump, every blunt edge creates a shockwave. Our job is to minimize that."
A New Champion and an Open Challenge
The result of this meticulous engineering is a new Guinness World Record for the fastest remote-controlled, battery-powered quadcopter. But the Bells are perhaps more proud of the broader aviation milestone: outrunning Rolls-Royce's battery-powered aircraft record.
Yet, in the spirit of innovation that drives this community, their victory comes with an open invitation. "We're absolutely inviting the competition to beat us," Mike Bell says with a grin. "That's how this works. It pushes everyone forward. We can't wait to see what they come up with... because it just gives us a reason to build something faster."
The battle for the skies continues, but for now, the crown rests once again with a dedicated father-and-son team who proved that sometimes, to go faster, you first have to build smarter.