BMW and DRL Want to Build the World’s Fastest Racing Drone

The Drone Racing League (DRL) has announced a partnership with another giant of German industry. With a sponsorship deal already in place with insurance firm Allianz, DRL has put pen to paper on a collaboration with car manufacturer BMW.

As a result of the deal, the 2018 DRL Allianz World Championship season event will take place at BMW Welt in Munich on July 28, 2018.

But that main headline is that together the two companies plan to develop the world’s fastest racing drone.

DRL will work alongside BMW to develop a drone capable of flying faster than last year’s record-breaking creation, the RacerX. Conveniently, the BMW Group wind tunnel that should come in handy.

Drone racing is a natural fit for BMW

Jörg Reimann, Head of BMW International Brand Experience, said: “The partnership with DRL will enhance BMW’s racing involvement with future-oriented formats. Drone racing is a very competitive type of racing, characterised by the interplay of extremely high-performance material and digital technology. This represents an environment in which BMW has assumed a pioneering position for many years in its core business. We are very much looking forward to this collaboration and to the new event formats that we will be developing together with our partners.”

As an official partner of the 2018 season, BMW is bringing the second to last race of the season to Munich on July 28, taking place at BMW Welt. The race will be broadcast this fall in more than 75 countries on leading sports programs including Prosieben.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with BMW, a world-class motorsports brand with a rich legacy of innovation. We look forward to bringing the futuristic sport of drone racing to BMW Welt and putting our proprietary technology to the test to make history with BMW,” said DRL CEO and Founder, Nicholas Horbaczewski.

Last year, DRL hand-built the DRL RacerX, the fastest racing drone on earth, which set the Guinness World RecordTM for the fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter at a speed of 265.87 km/h. Thanks to a close collaboration with the BMW Group, DRL will now aim to break this record. Tests will take place in the wind tunnel at the Aerodynamic Test Center with this ambitious goal in mind, allowing DRL to leverage the technological expertise of the car manufacturer.