The Dutch company Drone Gods, together with the Red Bull Formula 1 team, has created the world's fastest FPV drone for filming competitions at the pace of racing cars.. The custom-built drone can reach speeds of 350 km/h with acceleration from 100 to 300 km/h in just 2 seconds.. It can pass the track on a par with cars with turns, acceleration and braking, withstanding up to 6 g of overload at the peak.
Image source: Red Bull
It took about a year to develop the drone, prototyping and creating the final version.. All components of the body and supporting frame of the bullet-shaped quadcopter were manufactured either on CNC machines from carbon fiber or using 3D printing. Electronics and motors were taken standard, but manufacturers, at the request of engineers, made certain improvements, both to the motors and to the control circuits. In principle, over time, all this will appear on the market in commercial products.
The weight of the drone was kept within 1 kg. For a car that accelerates to 350 km/h with overloads of up to 6 g and average overloads of 2–3 g, weight is of no small importance. During the development process, the weight of the drone was reduced by 10% from the weight of the first prototypes.
Tests have shown that the drone can cover a 5.8-km route at maximum settings for electronics, motors and batteries without heating up to critical levels. At the same time, he walked along the track on a par with the RB20 Red Bull Formula 1 car, sometimes even ahead of the racing car. There is no doubt that the drone operator needed reflexes and reactions that were not inferior to the reactions of the race car driver, and maybe even faster.
In future races, they plan to use the drone to film the competition from an unusual angle, which will further increase the entertainment of the races. Currently, the drone has a camera that shoots in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with 10-bit color depth, but there are plans for better quality live streaming in the future.