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The Drone Racing League (DRL) has just broken a Guinness World Record for fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter with an achieved speed of 179.6 miles per hour.
According to Fortune, earlier prototypes and speed tests resulted in the drones bursting “into flames when hitting (the) highest point of acceleration”, due to the immense power being applied. Testing was done on a 328-foot-long area which the drone had to traverse to-and-fro, from which the average top speed was clocked at 163.5 MPH. While RacerX’s 179.6 benchmark was the fastest recorded speed, it is the 163.5 mph mark that holds the official Guinness World Record title.
DRL CEO and founder Nicholas Horbaczewski said the company is “thrilled to put our proprietary technology to the test, as we’re all about speed and pushing the limits of drone design here at DRL,” and that the “record-setting Racer X represents the culmination of years of technological innovation by our team of world class engineers, and we’re very excited to unveil the fastest racing drone on earth.” Have a look below at the DRL team on the day of victory in question.
The DRL has made amazing strides in bringing drone racing and drones in general to people’s attention, as the organization’s partnerships with Allianz and ESPN have been increasing awareness and attention to the field. Just last year, the DRL’s first season of championship competitions had over 28.2 sets of eyeballs watching the new eSport, with this year’s season garnering more funding than ever as well as faster drones. This sport is taking off and this latest Guinness World Record will only increase the DRL’s popularity and perception as a significant endeavor. If you are at all curious about the DRL championships, the DRL Allianz World Championship finale will air on July 28 at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
A press release from DRL has provided us with some more detailed information regarding the RacerX drone’s attributes. According to DRL, the RacerX flies with “46,000 RPMs, a 10S (42V) Powertrain, BeeRotor 80A (10S) ESCs / BLHeli with Multishot, a TMotor F80 2407 2500kv, and 1300mah 2 x 5S R-Line Tattu Lithium Polymer Batteries.” This particular World Record-setting drone was built by DRL Head of Product, Ryan Gury, who should be feeling immensely proud right now. We can’t wait to see this thing in action.
