Mike and Luke Bell, a South African father-son engineering team, have officially broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest battery-electric flight in history. Their custom-built quadcopter, the Peregreen V4, clocked a staggering top speed of 657.59 km/h (408.60 mph), reclaiming the title for South Africa and pushing the boundaries of electric propulsion technology.

The record-breaking run, conducted under the strict guidelines of Guinness World Records, officially surpasses the fastest crewed electric aircraft in the world—the Rolls-Royce “Spirit of Innovation”—which reached a maximum speed of 623 km/h.

Engineering the Impossible

The Peregreen V4 represents 2.5 years  of aerodynamic refinement and high-power electrical engineering. 

A Father-Son Legacy

While the technical achievement is historic, the heart of the project is the partnership between Mike and Luke. The duo has been a fixture in the South African “maker” and drone communities, previously holding several iterations of the speed record.

“We wanted to give the previous record holder his moment to celebrate, but we knew what the Peregreen V4 was capable of,” says Luke Bell. “This wasn’t just about the number on the screen; it was about seeing how far we could push the laws of physics together.”