A custom-built quadcopter called the Blackbird reached 453.6 mph in Australia in May 2026, posting an unofficial two-direction average of 426 mph that surpasses the 408.60 mph Guinness World Record for fastest battery-powered radio-controlled (RC) quadcopter.

The current official record belongs to the Peregreen V4, set by South African father-and-son team Luke and Mike Bell in December 2025. The Blackbird, developed by Australian engineer Benjamin Biggs and Aidan Kelly, has not been certified by Guinness.

No accredited observers were present and the timing zone was not formally established, the team confirmed.

The attempt spanned two days. On the first day, the Blackbird reached 390 mph before the pilot lost all video feed. Three factors stacked to produce the failure. Both antennas shared identical orientations, creating a blind spot. Doppler shift altered the digital link frequency faster than the receiver could track. Near-field signal overload then saturated the receiver. The drone was not recovered.

On the second day, the team flew the sole remaining airframe in gusts reaching 60 km/h. The drone drew 400 amps for roughly 10 seconds, pushing battery temperatures to 80 degrees Celsius and melting wiring insulation. The downwind pass produced a peak of 453 mph. The upwind return reached 398 mph for the 426 mph average.

The critical hardware change was a set of custom carbon fiber propellers with a sawtooth leading edge, replacing the APC 7×15 props used in previous attempts. The sawtooth geometry reduces span-wise airflow across blade surfaces, stabilizing the boundary layer at high pitch angles and preventing stall.

The signal failure modes documented, including antenna geometry, Doppler shift on a digital link, and near-field receiver overload, are the same electronic vulnerabilities that affect first-person view (FPV) drone operations in contested environments. Biggs has not confirmed a date for a certified Guinness attempt.