The World’s Fastest Drone Was Built By… YouTubers?
Good News for Filmmakers
Just when you thought drone technology couldn’t get any crazier, along come a couple of YouTubers who apparently looked at a fighter jet and said, “Hold my beer.”
Around the world, governments and corporations are pouring nearly $30 billion into drone development. Military planners are obsessed with them. Industrial companies are using them for inspections. Filmmakers are creating shots that once required helicopters and large crews.
And then two guys in Australia decided to see how fast they could make one go. The result is a custom-built quadcopter called Blackbird. According to its creators, Aidan Kelly and Ben Biggs of Drone Pro Hub, the drone recently hit an astonishing 453 miles per hour. For perspective, that is faster than many race cars, faster than most people’s imagination, and considerably faster than my first car, which occasionally struggled to reach highway speed while traveling downhill with a tailwind.
Their secret? Custom carbon fiber propellers featuring a clever sawtooth edge design along with specially engineered high-pitch blades. The goal was simple: squeeze every possible ounce of performance from the aircraft and then squeeze a little more. The run was not officially observed by Guinness, so it won’t appear in any record book just yet. But the video evidence is impressive enough to make drone enthusiasts around the world sit up and take notice.
A New Era of Innovation
The bigger story is what this says about innovation. Some of the most exciting advances in technology are no longer coming exclusively from giant corporations, defense contractors, or research laboratories. Increasingly, they’re coming from small teams, independent creators, and passionate tinkerers who simply refuse to accept conventional limits.
For filmmakers, that’s good news. Today’s drones already deliver cinematic shots that would have cost a fortune only a few years ago. Add artificial intelligence, autonomous flight systems, advanced obstacle avoidance, and increasingly capable cameras, and the future starts looking very interesting indeed.
Will we soon see drones intelligently planning shots, tracking talent automatically, and operating as flying camera assistants? Absolutely.
Will filmmakers someday have drones flying at 453 miles per hour? Let’s hope not. The insurance paperwork alone would be terrifying.
One thing is certain: drone technology is accelerating at an incredible pace. The next breakthrough may come from a billion-dollar corporation. Or it may come from two clever people in a garage who decide that the current speed record simply isn’t fast enough.
As for me, I’m still trying to get my drone to stop following pigeons.
Bill Milling, American Movie Company, LLC.