Australian aerospace engineer Benjamin Biggs has published the full build story of the Blackbird, the quadcopter that took the Guinness World Record for fastest battery-powered RC drone at 626.42 km/h (389 mph) on December 8, 2025. The video, released on his own YouTube channel nine months after the record fell, covers the two years of work behind it, from a June 2024 start to the record day.
The headline choice is the power system. Biggs ran the Blackbird on 14 lithium polymer cells, two custom 7-cell packs in series for more than 60 volts fully charged, against the 6 cells a typical FPV drone uses. His first speed controller went up in smoke. He then soldered four APD 200 F3 controllers side by side with a 3 mm copper rod and gave them no cooling at all, on the logic that 10 seconds at full throttle would not be long enough to cook them.
The Blackbird was designed around a propeller that barely stays subsonic
Biggs built the Blackbird around APC’s 7x15 propeller, a 7-inch blade with 15 inches of pitch, and calculated that 30,000 rpm would give him 617 km/h (383 mph). The blade tips would be at 95 percent of the speed of sound, so he cut the props to about 6 inches.
Custom-wound Amax 2826 motors, rated to 4.6 kW, have their windings soldered straight to the speed controllers. The propellers sit ahead of the arms in a puller layout Biggs says no other high-speed quad used at the time. CNC-machined aluminium spinners double as prop nuts and duct air over the motor windings, a copy of the P-51 Mustang’s Meredith-effect radiator. Biggs says they cooled the motors and cut drag, and doubts they add thrust.
Biggs started after watching Luke and Mike Bell’s 480 km/h record video. His first prototype maxed out at 450 km/h. The Blackbird passed 600 on its second day out. On record day the first pair of runs averaged 604 km/h; for the second pair Biggs charged the packs to 4.3 volts per cell, above the normal 4.2, and flew 599 upwind and 655 downwind for the certified 626.42. Three days later the Bells took the record back at 657.59 km/h.
The video dropout that killed a Blackbird in May was there from the first prototype
Biggs’ video feed cut out almost every time the prototype flew past him in early 2025, once leaving him staring into the sun with no picture. Voltage regulators, a separate transmitter battery and analog video all failed to fix it. The record day ended with two more dropouts.
That is the fault that cost the team an airframe at 630 km/h in May 2026, when Biggs offered Doppler shift on the digital link as an unproven theory. In the new video he calls it only a glitch that happens when you fly fast past yourself, and closes by promising a part two on the climb from 626 to “well over 700 km/h.” DroneXL reported the 690 km/h pass in February and the 730 peak in May, neither with Guinness witnesses on site.
DroneXL’s Take
The useful thing here is the date on the dropout, not the spinners. Biggs was losing his picture on close passes in early 2025, a year before it cost him a Blackbird, and every fix he tried was a power fix for what looks like a radio fault.
The Bells hold the record because they turned up with witnesses and four clean passes. Biggs has beaten 657 km/h on his own telemetry twice since. What he has not done is walk into a certified attempt with a spare drone in the case, and I don’t see how he does that while the feed still drops on the fastest pass of the day. The next 15 km/h will come from props. The record will come from the video link.
Source: Benjamin Biggs (YouTube), Guinness World Records.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
