South African father and son break Guinness World Record

A father-and-son duo from Cape Town, South Africa, have set the world record for the fastest ground speed by a battery-powered, remote-controlled quadcopter, also known as a drone.

Guinness World Records confirmed the feat, achieved by Mike and Luke Bell after their drone attained a speed of 657.59 kilometres per hour on 11 December 2025.

Not only did this break the previous drone speed record, but it also set the fastest electric airspeed record of all time.

This is the third time that the two have broken this record, achieving speeds of 480 km/h in 2024 and 580 km/h in June 2025.

According to Mike Bell, the record was first set by Ryan Lademann in the United States at a speed of 360 km/h in 2022. This was broken by the Bells the following year, after they achieved a speed of 398km/h.

They then broke their own record in 2024, reaching a speed of 480 km/h. This was broken by another American (533km/h) and then by a Swiss engineer who managed to achieve a speed of 558km/h.

The Dubai Police, in partnership with the Bells, then set a new record in June of 2025 (580km/h), which was broken a few months later by an Australian (626km/h).

Mike Bell explained that the two have been working on improving the design of their drone, which had broken the world record.

However, faced several hurdles that prevented them from surpassing 580km/h, resulting in the motors constantly bursting into flames.

This, he says, came down to the design of the custom motors, which they build and 3D print themselves, preventing the speed potential of the design from being realised.

The high speeds would result in the motors wobbling, damaging the magnets and leading to runaway overheating.

An adjustment to the motor’s structural design allowed it to realise the true speed potential without bursting into flames.

However, the “secret sauce” of the record-breaking drone lies in the cone-shaped cover added on top of the propeller, which decreases drag, increases thrust, and requires less power.

“It reduces drag hugely, which is the whole point. We had tried these before, but with all the crashing, we didn’t want to put additional strain on the entire system,” Mike said.

Once the drone surpassed the 580km/h mark, a new challenge presented itself: the propellers moving so fast that they experienced shock drag.

This is when an object, approaching the speed of sound, travels so fast that the sound around it bunches up, causing the air to become incredibly hard and damage the propellers.

Thanks to these design adaptations, the Bells no longer experienced overheating during flight tests and were able to break the Guinness World Record.

However, catching the feat on video was a challenge of its own, given the drone’s small size and high speed.

To do this, Luke Bell attached an Insta360 X5 camera to the tail of their Peregreen V3 drone, which allowed the pilot to follow the Peregreen V4’s flight path and reframe after the flight.