Redazione RHC : 23 November 2025 13:41
This summer, in the Dubai desert, a flight occurred that few expected to see from a battery-powered quadcopter.
The experimental Peregreen 3 reached a speed of 360.4 miles per hour (about 580 kilometers per hour), breaking a record that had stood for a year.
At the time, only the test participants knew about it, but on November 18, YouTube blogger Luke Maxima Bell finally revealed the project and shared footage of the flight. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed the achievement as a new world record for electric remote-controlled quadcopters . The previous record, 350 kilometers per hour, was held by a Swiss team.
The most interesting part of this story isn’t just the final shape, but also the path Bell and his father took to get there . The work began in a simple garage. Luke and Mike set up several 3D printers and used them to create a thin, curved frame, perfecting its aerodynamics almost by hand . They were able to print, assemble, and test each new shape on-site.
Thanks to this, the quadcopter evolved from one iteration to the next literally in days, not weeks.
At the heart of this success was a large lithium-polymer battery that provided sustained acceleration. Extending from it were four arms, each with a motor that spun the propellers so fast that the blades disappeared into a translucent ring.
Control was via a remote control with its own firmware: there was virtually no delay, allowing Luke to adjust the trajectory literally on the fly . Mike monitored the telemetry: voltage, temperature, and battery performance . To ensure reliability, they built their own electronic protection to prevent the aircraft from losing control in the event of a sudden increase in load.
A crucial step was access to a long stretch of desert airspace, provided by Dubai Unmanned Aerial Systems . Here, the team was able to repeatedly launch prototypes without disturbing anyone nearby.
But the heat quickly exposed the design’s weaknesses. At temperatures above 43°C, lift decreased, and the engines overheated to the point of losing their magnetic engagement.
This led to imbalances and accidents . After each failure, the design was improved: heat-resistant motors were installed, molded cooling fins were added, the struts were reinforced, and limiters were introduced into the software.
By the sixth prototype, the team already had a working setup. Launches were conducted at dawn, before the air warmed up.
After each flight, they analyzed the logs and returned an updated version. Luke walked the acceleration line before takeoff to gauge the wind direction, and Mike replaced the batteries with the precision of a race mechanic.
On June 22, everything went perfectly. Peregreen 3 lifted off smoothly, entered a straight line, and began accelerating. A GPS module was on board, recording every second of the flight. Markers were placed on the ground, and Guinness representatives monitored the process. The quadcopter remained stable throughout the flight and reached a speed of 360.4 miles per hour, a goal the team had been working toward for months.
It wasn’t just a quick flight: it was the result of hundreds of repairs, dozens of crashes, and the tenacity of two people who decided they could build a record-breaking plane in a garage.
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