A father and son from South Africa have reclaimed the Guinness World Record for fastest quadcopter drone, pushing their 3D-printed aircraft to an average speed of 408 miles per hour and dethroning an Australian engineer who held the title for barely a month.
Luke Bell, an aerial videographer and YouTuber based in Cape Town, built the Peregrine V4 with his father Mike, setting the record on December 11, 2025. The pair have now held the record three separate times, each iteration topping their own previous marks in a back-and-forth contest with rival builders. The Bells previously clocked 363 mph with their Peregrine 3 in October 2025 and 298 mph with the Peregrine 2 in June 2024.
The Peregrine V4 recorded an official two-run average of 408 mph under Guinness verification rules, which require averaging speeds from flights in opposite directions to offset wind influences. The drone hit 410 mph with a tailwind and 372 mph flying upwind.
Australian aerospace engineer Ben Biggs had set the previous record at 389 mph with his Blackbird drone just weeks earlier.
The latest build followed five months of simulation runs, stress testing, and component experimentation. Bell said 3D printing drove much of their progress.
“The new printer’s larger build volume and dual-nozzle system made it possible to print the body as one continuous piece,” Bell said in a YouTube video. “That gave us smoother aerodynamics and a much higher surface finish quality than before.”
Using a Bambu Lab H2D dual-extruder printer, the team fabricated the main body, camera mount, and landing gear as a single component. They combined multiple materials including PETG, carbon fiber-reinforced nylon, and TPU to balance durability and weight across different sections.
The Bells upgraded to four T-Motor 3120 brushless motors with 900-kV windings, a jump from the 800-kV configuration in earlier versions, boosting rotational speed. They ran airflow simulations through the AirShaper platform to reshape the exterior and cut drag, then shortened propeller blades from 7 inches to 6 inches for better high-speed efficiency.
Bell said he does not expect to hold the title long. The record has changed hands five times since April 2024, with each new holder pushing speeds higher within months of the previous mark.
