Drone breaks world speed record with 453 mph in test run — exotic sawtooth carbon fiber propeller blades one of the key advances in the Blackbird design
Team achieves mind-blowing speeds with their custom propellers, with aggressive pitch and sawtooth leading edges.
A drone-loving duo just unofficially broke the drone speed world record when they achieved a maximum speed of 453 mph (730 kph or 394 kts) in a single run — for context, most jetliners cruise at around 550 mph (885 kph or 478 kts). The two drone builders, Aidan and Ben, had previously set a record of 388 mph (626 kph or 338 kts) in December 2025, but were soon defeated by the Bell father-and-son team with the 408 mph Peregreen V4. So, to reclaim their crown, they ordered new propellers for the 'Blackbird' and shared their test run on the Drone Pro Hub YouTube channel.
The team’s secret sauce is their custom carbon fiber propeller blades that were specially handmade for this purpose. These featured high-pitch blades (whose pitch angle is a secret for now) that are angled more towards the direction of flight compared to the blades used in previous attempts. This made them more efficient at high speeds as the props are more parallel to the airflow compared to other propellers with a lower pitch angle. One downside to this, though, is that it delivers less power at low speeds — like when taking off or hovering — so the motors must use more battery power during this (rather short) stage of flight.
Another finesse of the design is evident in the sawtooth leading edges found on the custom blades. These generate vortices on the surface of the blade, helping prevent the air from sliding sideways along the blade instead of flowing straight back off its trailing edge to push the drone forward. They also stabilize the boundary layer, or the thin layer of air that acts like a “lubricant” and reduces drag on the propeller itself. This is crucial as it allows the propellers to have a steeper angle without stalling (if the angle is too steep it acts more like a blender than a propeller).
These changes seemed to have pushed the team’s drone further, as it achieved 393 mph (633 kph or 341 kts) in its first test run. Unfortunately, physics got the better of them, as antenna geometry, the Doppler effect, and signal overload caused the drone to lose connection from the controller at such a high speed. The two did not bother attempting to recover it, as they knew that it was lost for good at these speeds. Furthermore, even if the drone lost connection right in front of the controller, it would have traveled miles at its current speed before it would have crashed.
Thankfully, they still had another drone available for testing and another set of their updated propellers. So, they set out again the following day and continued their tests. It seemed that they only had enough batteries for two test runs, and adverse weather was quickly approaching, so they had to set up quickly and get to flying. It was also a windy day, so they made one downwind flight and one upwind flight, and they just averaged the speeds between the two to get a rather fair result.
It was on the downwind test flight that they achieved their record 453 mph, which is above the 441-mph record that they initially hoped for. However, when they accounted for the 34-mph tailwind, this meant that the drone only had an actual airspeed of 419 mph (674 kph or 364 kts). For their final test run, the duo achieved 397 mph (640 kph or 345 kts) against the wind. They averaged the two runs, getting a figure of 425 mph (685 kph or 369 kts) — this might be a bit short of the more than 434 mph (700 kph or 377 kts) they hoped to achieve, but it still beats the current world record.
Official record next?
Their final drone was damaged a bit when it landed hard after the last test run, as the batteries ran completely flat just a few feet off the ground. Nevertheless, this is still repairable, and the two should hopefully be able to get their drone running again for an official record attempt this time. As for the first drone that crashed, the owner of the land where they were conducting the testing found it completely mangled, but that’s already expected.
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If you want to make your own attempt at achieving the drone world speed record, you can actually get guidance through their Drone Pro Hub website. And while they use custom propeller blades made by a professional, you can actually 3D print the body and other components at home with one of the best 3D printers you can buy.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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alrighty_then Neat. Although there may not be practical reasons for a drone to travel at this speed...the challenge will get some people excited to build again, and that's a good thing.Reply -
Notton I'm not well versed in drones, so I suppose that's impressive for a propeller drone.Reply
Unlike larger fixed wing aircraft, the propellers on that drone have a small diameter, so there should be a lot of headroom leftover for even faster speeds before the propeller tips hit Mach 1.
I'll be impressed when those drones go faster than a Tu-95, which is 925km/h (575mph). -
USAFRet Reply
One of the problems with fast is control.Notton said:I'm not well versed in drones, so I suppose that's impressive for a propeller drone.
Unlike larger fixed wing aircraft, the propellers on that drone have a small diameter, so there should be a lot of headroom leftover for even faster speeds before the propeller tips hit Mach 1.
I'll be impressed when those drones go faster than a Tu-95, which is 925km/h (575mph).
Very quickly you get out of range with a land based control station.
You can bounce off a satellite ($$$$), but that also introduces latency issues. -
Scott_Tx I always thought competition for maximum altitude would be interesting too, like a prop driven rocket straight up.Reply -
PEnns Also, it turns out that flying horizontally (head first) is faster than flying sideways......Reply -
USAFRet ReplyScott_Tx said:I always thought competition for maximum altitude would be interesting too, like a prop driven rocket straight up.The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is 20.430 kilometres (67,028 ft). It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flight_altitude_records -
jon pascka Congrats on the accomplishment! BUT; I am not well versed in drone FAA regulations but below 10,000 feet msl there is a 250 knot speed limit over almost all the US and close to airports it's 200 knots. As a aircraft pilot hitting your drone someplace where you weren't suppose to be could be disastrous! JonReply -
USAFRet Reply
From a facebook post:jon pascka said:Congrats on the accomplishment! BUT; I am not well versed in drone FAA regulations but below 10,000 feet msl there is a 250 knot speed limit over almost all the US and close to airports it's 200 knots. As a aircraft pilot hitting your drone someplace where you weren't suppose to be could be disastrous! Jon
"685 km/h. New world drone speed record. Built and flown in Australia" -
Dr3ams Reply
Maybe something like a drone AWACS system. Using another drone that loiters high above the area (or battlefield) do direct highspeed drones to their targets over greater distances.USAFRet said:One of the problems with fast is control.
Very quickly you get out of range with a land based control station.
You can bounce off a satellite ($$$$), but that also introduces latency issues. -
FunSurfer Reply
No practical reasons? Try military reasons. This is perfect for suicide drones. Same story all over again, smart scientist create great invention, and some evil ruler use it for destruction, like the famous example of von Braun, the rocket invention and what SHitler did with it.alrighty_then said:Neat. Although there may not be practical reasons for a drone to travel at this speed...the challenge will get some people excited to build again, and that's a good thing.