Father-Son Duo Reclaim World’s Fastest Drone Record with Peregreen V4

A South African father-son duo has recaptured the crown in their never-ending search of the fastest drone. Luke Maximo Bell, an aerial videographer, and his father Mike have just guided their Peregreen V4 quadcopter to a staggering average speed of 657.59 km/h, or 408.6 mph, securing an official entry in the Guinness World Records books as the fastest battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter of all time.

Luke is in charge of flying and main design on the Peregreen V4, but Dad Mike has played an important role in getting them to the finish line, offering critical support and skills in testing and assembly. Over the last few years, they’ve collaborated to create numerous record-breaking machines. Luke’s prior machines include the Peregreen 2, which hit 480 km/h with ease mid-last year, and the Peregreen 3, which achieved 585 km/h right before Christmas in ’25. For a time, records appeared to be all set to be held by Australian engineer Benjamin Biggs, who reached an amazing 626 km/h just a month before the Bells stole the show.

Peregreen V4 is the culmination of months of steady development, and the father-son team worked tirelessly to make it just perfect. They used AirShaper computer simulations to form the drone’s body for maximum efficiency, and then printed it all at once with their Bambu Lab H2D dual-nozzle 3D printer, because who needs tons of individual pieces when you can get it all in one chunk, right? They used PA6-CF for the robust bits and TPU for the flexible bits (such as the tail). The end result is a considerably smoother surface and improved aerodynamics, as well as extensive sanding and polishing to remove any friction.

The Peregreen V4 is powered by four highly sophisticated T-Motor 3120 brushless motors with 900-kV windings, a significant improvement over the previous model, which featured (by comparison) quite basic 800-kV motors. These are spinning some really high-end APC 6-inch propeller blades that were developed after intensive bench testing to find the best combination of thrust, heat management, and reliability. The batteries are also very high-tech, with high-discharge lithium-polymer packs like the SMC SRD V4 2800mAh 12S. Of course, they need some right electronic speed controllers to handle the power needs, which is where the APD comes in to help keep things under control.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and the team worked hard in the lab to get it perfect. During the initial flights, they discovered that windy conditions made a significant difference; they could reach some incredible speeds on the upwind run, but the downwind run was significantly slower, which explained why Guinness insists on averaging the runs in both directions. The official record attempt took place on a gorgeous, quiet day at Blowberg Farm (which, from what I can understand, is a nice area in the middle of nowhere South Africa). There were independent witnesses present to ensure that everything was level, and the drone performed admirably, reaching speeds of 656 km/h on the northwest run and 659 km/h on the southeast run. When you average them, you get 657.59 km/h, which is more than enough to claim the record.

The biggest challenge was capturing all that speed on camera. They attempted to obtain some amazing pursuit images by deploying a second drone with an Insta360 X5 360-degree camera, but let me tell you, tracking the thing was difficult. Finally, they had to return to utilizing a Peregreen 3 camera to film the flights.
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