---
title: "The Fastest Drone On Earth Just Reached Speeds Over 163 MPH"
description: "The world record for the fastest ground speed achieved by a remote control quadcopter has been set by the engineering department of the Drone Racing League."
date: "2017-07-18"
modified: "2017-07-18"
authors:
  - name: "Tom Ward"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/tomward"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-fastest-drone-on-earth-just-reached-speeds-over-163-mph"
categories:
  - "Drones"
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "drone"
  - "racing"
  - "World record"
---

# The Fastest Drone On Earth Just Reached Speeds Over 163 MPH

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/racer_diagnol-1280x854.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://thedroneracingleague.com/racerx/" target="\_blank"\>The Drone Racing League\</a\>\</em\>*

Engineers at the [Drone Racing League](<https://thedroneracingleague.com/>) (DRL) have developed a drone outside of the league's parameters that has broken the Guiness World Record for fastest speed — it achieved 263.1 km/h (163.5 mph) on the 100-meter course, although it had recorded velocities of 289 km/h (179.6 mph) over longer distances.

![\[Taken\] Drone Wins Guinness World Record for Fastest Quadcopter](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/drone-speed-records.png>)

The drone, which is called the [DRL RacerX](<https://thedroneracingleague.com/racerx/>), weighed 800 grams (1.76 pounds), produced 46,000 RPM, and — unlike earlier prototypes — did not burst into flames at its highest speeds. It won the category of “fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter.”

[Nicholas Horbaczewski](<http://uk.businessinsider.com/drone-racing-league-founder-nick-horbaczewski-2017-2>), the founder of DRL, [said in a press release](<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-drone-racing-league-drl-builds-the-fastest-racing-drone-300488460.html>), "The record-setting RacerX represents the culmination of years of technological innovation by our team of world class engineers, and we're very excited to unveil the fastest racing drone on earth."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPpQWIA59Wo

Speed is not the only boundary being pushed in the drone world, though — the machines are being applied to weird, wonderful, and sometimes worrying ends. NASA is developing drones to explore martian worlds, [BioCarbon Engineering](<http://www.biocarbonengineering.com/>) have proposed [using them to plant trees](<https://futurism.com/new-drone-plans-on-ambitious-mission-to-plant-100000-trees-a-day>), and the military is straying into ethically controversial ground by [combining warfare drones with AI](<https://futurism.com/bizarre-story-ai-drone-calls-future-warfare-question>) in order to fight enemies.