Vodafone Xblades Drone Sets New Tilt-Rotor Speed Record

You might remember the British teenager who led a team to a $250,000 win at a drone racing event in Dubai back in 2016. Well, he’s still flying. Luke Bannister has just set a new world record as part of a promotional event with telecoms giant Vodafone.

At the 25th edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the famous race track in England was the scene of a world record attempt.

The Vodafone Xblades Racing drone – The Wingcopter XBR –  set a new record for the fastest ground speed by a ‘remote-controlled tilt-rotor aircraft’.

Drone racer Luke Bannister was behind the controls as the Vodafone Xblades drone achieved a top speed average of 240.6km/h (about 150 miles per hour) on the Goodwood estate. The record was confirmed by the team at Guinness World Records.

The event was planned to highlight the work Vodafone has been doing to develop 5G connectivity. “Setting a drone world record at The Goodwood Festival of Speed gives us a glimpse of what is to come with the roll-out of 5G across the country,” says Vodafone UK’s Enterprise Director, Anne Sheehan. “With super-charged data speeds, we will see technology – including drones – put to new and exciting uses.”

Didn’t DRL already create a new drone speed record?

Yes. Yes they did. But the Drone Racing League holds the record for the Fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter. The custom built DRL RacerX hit a top speed of 179.6 miles per hour. So the two records are different. Vodafone’s used a tilt-rotor drone, DRL’s used a more conventional quadcopter.