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- Though unofficial due to no pro observer, a new world speed record for drones has been hit
- The first run was a disaster – the drone lost contact and crashed
- Record is almost twice the speed of a Formula 1 car (730 km/h compared to 397 km/h
The battle for the title of the fastest drone in existence has become unexpectedly thrilling over the past year. The current officially recognized Guinness World Record was set by Luke Maximo Bell in December 2025, with his custom-built Peregreen V4 hitting 658 km/h. However, this was unofficially broken by Australian duo Ben Biggs and Aidan Kelly of Drone Pro Hub in February 2026 when they hit 690 km/h, and now has been broken again with a staggering top flight speed of 730 km/h.
The reason this record is unofficial is because the pair didn't have a professional observer present to ratify the attempt. However, you can see in the video below the attempts made to break the record, the last of which is successful. The record-smashing drone is called the 'Blackbird', a scratch-built device made by Biggs, an engineer – it's quite a different beast to the consumer camera drones we usually review.
Watch the video below. It's worth reiterating that the pair are Australian, and there is an amount of colorful language.
The first attempt to re-break the record is an unmitigated disaster – the pair reach 630 km/h, but lose video contact with the drone. Their theory is that this is caused by some combination of a blind spot in the drone's antennae, a Doppler shift compromising the video link, and an overloaded signal as the drone passed the pilot at close range (though there's a spirited debate currently going on in the video comments). But whatever the cause, the result was the same: a wrecked Blackbird.
Fortunately, the pair had another prototype ready to go, and the next round of testing smashed the record. The Blackbird achieved a verified average speed of 685 km/h (426 mph), with a peak downwind speed of 730 km/h (453 mph). This was confirmed by GPS and by on-camera telemetry.
How the Blackbird was pushed even faster
According to Biggs, the key to making the Blackbird faster than ever before came from a set of updated custom carbon fiber propeller blades. These blades were hand-made by friends of the channel, and were built with a sawtooth leading edge, which generates vortices that keep the air moving towards the back of the blade rather than sliding off the side, increasing efficiency. The blades are also angled more towards the direction of flight, again improving efficiency by minimally disrupting airflow – as Tom's Hardware explains.
The trade-off is that this design provides a lot less power at low speeds, meaning that functions like take-off and landing can be extremely power-intensive. Well, to be fair, the entire operation is extremely power-intensive – at its peak, the Blackbird produced a power draw of 400 amps for 10 seconds. When it came down following its successful flight, its batteries were smoking and its wires melted.
Fortunately, the drone was not permanently damaged, and we have a feeling it won't be long before Biggs and Kelly are back with an official observer in tow to officially reclaim their Guinness World Record. And beyond that – who knows? We now officially have a drone capable of travelling at more than 700 km/h. Could 800 km/h be on the horizon?
While the Blackbird is not commercially available, Pro Drone Hub are planning to distribute the blueprints in order to allow people to 3D print the components for themselves – you can sign up at their website to be notified when the release is made official.
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