An Australian man just built a 388mph drone and it’s now the fastest on Earth

An Australian man built a lightweight drone that has just earned itself a Guinness World Record after clocking a top speed of more than 388mph. 

To give that some context, that’s more than 171 miles faster than the Lamborghini Aventador, with its top speed of 217mph,  and about twice as fast as the Audi RS7, which can do 190mph. 

Or to put it another way, it’s a little more than half the speed of sound, which clocks in about 767mph.

Impressive right? And it all started when its creator, Ben Biggs, saw a video showcasing a super-fast drone and thought he could do better.

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He was inspired to build it after seeing other super-fast drones online

Ben has a degree in aerospace engineering and has been flying drones for more than 15 years.

For the last five years, he’s been designing and building drones professionally for drone photography company XM2, working on some big movies, including John Wick 4. 

So, after watching a video on YouTube about the previous world’s fastest drone, he decided he could give it a run for its money. 

“It started as a personal project, it was just a bit of a fun project, I saw that video, and it inspired me,” Ben told Supercar Blondie. 

“I just thought it would be fun to try and beat, and I think I’ve got the knowledge to do it.”

And he wasn’t wrong. 

With his background, Ben was able to design every aspect of the drone himself, and XM2 allowed him to use its workspace to get it built. 

After several months of hard work, Ben had a prototype that was ready for a test drive. 

The DIY prototype managed to hit a top speed of around 280mph, so Ben knew he was on the right track. 

“I basically took everything I learned from that and optimized it, with the goal of achieving more than 600 kilometers an hour,” Ben explained. 

The impressive build took around 18 months and hours of work

Aside from using his place of work to help build the drone, Ben tackled the project single-handedly, covering every aspect of the build. 

“Everything from the 3D modeling to the aerodynamic design, to the electronics and power selection was all my work,” he said. 

Initially, he was also using his own cash to, literally, get the drone off the ground. 

However, for the build after the prototype, he managed to secure sponsorship from Drone Pro Hub, which helped fund the ambitious project. 

To achieve such high speeds, the drone needed to be lightweight, but it also needed to be aerodynamic and strong enough to carry its battery pack. 

“The peak power is about 16 kilowatts, and trying to squeeze that much power into such a small frame is one of the biggest challenges,” Ben explained. 

The finished drone weighs around 4.4lbs, and stands around 15.7 inches tall and 9.8 inches high, it also has around ten times the power-to-weight ratio of an F1 car.

The DIY drone is now an official world record holder

Last week, Ben took the drone off for an official Guinness World Record attempt. 

And today (December 17), the new record was confirmed. 

“The drone hit an official top speed of 626km/h (388mph), but I have got it up to 655km/h (406mph) flying downwind,” he said.    

And if you think that Ben is going to be resting on his laurels now that he’s a Guinness World Record holder, then you’re wrong, because he’s already thinking about his next big project.

You can keep up to date with that on Ben’s Instagram page here and the official Drone Pro Hub page here.

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