Father-Son Team's 3D-Printed Drone Hits 408 MPH

Luke Maximobell and his father didn't need a factory or a Fortune 500 sponsor to build the world's fastest drone. They just needed a 3D printer, two years of tinkering, and the determination to reclaim a record they'd lost just one month earlier.

Their Peregreen V4 quadcopter screamed through the sky at 657 kilometers per hour (408 mph), officially verified by Guinness World Records. That's faster than a Formula 1 race car at top speed, and it beat Australian engineer Ben Biggs' record of 626 kilometers per hour set just weeks before.

"Fortunately for us, we've spent the past five months improving every aspect of our drone," Luke explained after the record-setting flight. The father-son duo completed four speed runs during a single one-hour testing session, with their fastest individual run hitting 659 kilometers per hour.

The Peregreen V4's entire body rolled off a Bambu Lab desktop 3D printer in their workshop. The team combined different materials including PETG, carbon-fiber-reinforced nylon, and flexible TPU for components like the camera mount and landing gear, optimizing each part without waiting for outside manufacturers.

Beyond printing, the duo upgraded to more powerful T-Motor brushless motors and spent countless hours refining the drone's aerodynamics using computer modeling. They even hand-sanded and polished the carbon-fiber surface to squeeze out every bit of extra speed, while shrinking the propellers from 7 inches to 6 inches for better high-speed efficiency.

The Ripple Effect: The Maximobells' success represents a seismic shift in who gets to innovate. Students at Aalborg University recently 3D-printed a hybrid drone that flies through air and swims underwater for search and rescue missions. Independent engineer Tsung Xu, with no formal aerospace training, designed and printed a winged drone that flew nonstop for 130 miles and three hours, all in just 90 days of development.

Desktop 3D printers now cost what a used car does, putting rapid prototyping and iteration within reach of hobbyists, students, and garage tinkerers worldwide. What once required industrial facilities and millions in funding can now happen in a spare bedroom, democratizing fields from aerospace to robotics.

"Now it's on the next person to break our record, so we can try to break it back," Luke said with a grin. In a world where anyone can print, test, and improve their designs overnight, that next record-breaker could be literally anyone with an idea and the drive to pursue it.