An amazing invention by a team of engineering enthusiasts from South Africa has officially entered the Guinness World Records. Father and son, Luke and Mike Bell, joined forces to create the world’s fastest quadcopter, which reached a staggering average top speed of 480.23 km/h during official testing. This was reported by Glavkom, citing the Guinness World Records.
Theoretically, their drone could cover the distance between Kyiv and Lviv in just one hour.
The story behind the creation of the “Sapsan” drone
Luke and Mike Bell, residents of the Western Cape province, spent months on design, engineering calculations, and field testing. Their high-speed quadcopter was named Peregreen 2, or “Sapsan”—in honor of the fastest bird on the planet.
This model is the successor to their first prototype, the Peregreen, which reached a speed of 397 km/h but did not receive official certification due to the lack of independent witnesses and strict measurements required by Guinness World Records regulations.
The Path to Improvement
Developing the second version was extremely dangerous. Due to the massive current flowing to the motors during peak loads, the system repeatedly failed. During the first test runs, the thin wires and lithium-polymer batteries overheated instantly, leading to short circuits and serious electrical fires in mid-air that completely destroyed the prototypes. After yet another crash, Luke and Mike were forced to go back to the drawing board, completely redesign the power system, and replace the wiring with a much more reliable one.
