How Fast Can a Drone Fly?

Whenever I am out in the park enjoying a good early Sunday morning fly around, I frequently hear two questions. I call them the ‘The Joggers FAQs’ because most of the people are joggers in the park who get amused by the sound of the rotors.

These questions are; How fast can a drone fly? And How far can this go?

For them, I usually have a very short numerical answer based on the model I am flying, but here, I want to talk about this in detail so that anybody curious enough to google the question can have a good time reading about it.

So how fast can a drone fly? The average speed of commercial camera drones is around 40mph. Some models can fly up to 60 mph, and some lower-category drones have speeds of around 20mph as well. For racing drones, the flying speed can go well above 100mph.

Ok, let’s discuss this in more detail.

Before jumping into the main topic, it’s a good idea to understand how drones fly. You must be thinking, “yeah, I know how they fly.

They have those rotating motors with fans on top”. Yes, but it’s not that simple. Many things go into keeping them in the air precise enough to make a 4K video and push them around, avoiding minute obstacles.

Also, this article is for people who might not be as tech-savvy as my drone enthusiasts friends.

As a hardcore drone enthusiast, it’s always my wish to educate more and more people about these beautiful flying machines so that they can join the club and have fun too.

How Drones Fly? – The Physics of it

A little heads up here; whenever we use the word drone in this post (and on this blog in general), I always mean the rotary-wing drones that come with a little camera and not those fix wings airplane types.

This is important because both have very different physics of staying in the air and flying around.

The Hovering: Most drones have three or more rotating propellers on top, which helps them stay in the air.

The rotational speed of these propellers (aka the RPM) and the resulting lift is very precisely controlled by Electronic Speed Controller (ESC).

All motors must have the same RPM to produce the same amount of lift and hover the drone in place. This sets the rotary-wing drones (aka quadcopters) apart from fixed wings.

Fixed wings can’t hover in one place because their lift depends on the relative velocity of air flowing over their wings, so they must move forward to remain in the air continually.

Moving forward/Sideways: Here, things get interesting. When you push the joystick on your remote controller or mobile screen to move the drone forward or sideways, the onboard computer intelligently increases the RPM of the two adjacent motors.

This increased thrust slightly raises one side of the quadcopter.

This slight tilt now divides the thrust force horizontally and vertically (during hovering, it’s all vertical). The vertical part of the thrust force keeps the drone in the air, and the horizontal force pushes the drone forward in the direction of the tilt.

That’s how a drone can freely move in any direction you want it to.

Factors influencing drone speed

Now that we understand the basics of a drone flight let’s discuss what factors influence the speed of a particular drone.

Type & design of the drone

Drones are designed for specific purposes, and that significantly affects their speed.

Some drones are designed for learning purposes. They are usually cheap and have low-powered motors. Since their primary purpose is to learn flying for beginners, they might not go as fast as the more sophisticated drones in higher price categories.

Other drones are designed specifically for high-performance flight e-g racing drones. They have high-output motors with a sleek design and minimum possible air resistance (lower drag coefficient).

Most commercial drones like the DJI Mavic Mini 2 also come with “sports mode,” which gives the motor extra battery juice to perform a high-speed flight, albeit at the expense of a high battery drain.

Weight of the drone

Drone flight is a constant struggle between the forces of nature and the motors.

The forces of nature include Gravity, which pulls the drone down, and air resistance, which pushes the drone in the opposite direction of flight.

The more the drone’s weight, the more it has to fight Gravity. More weight also means bigger size and more resistance against air.

So, the need for speed dictates lower weight and smaller size.

Motors & Propellers

The type of motor and propeller combination also affects the speed of drones keeping everything else the same. A more powerful motor can produce high RPM, resulting in higher thrust forces.

The type of motor used is critical in the overall design of the drone. There are basically two main types of motors used in today’s drones; Brushed motors and Brushless motors.

Lower price category drones like Holystone use the cheaper brushed motors, which are not very power efficient, while higher-category drones like the DJI Mavic series use the more efficient brushless motors.

If the motor is inefficient, it will use more battery juice to produce the same power output, requiring a bigger battery or having a lower flight time. They also have lower power output hence low flight speed.

Similarly, if you want to produce more thrust, you must use propellers with higher pitch angles, which comes with a compromise. A higher pitch means higher drag hence higher motor power is required to move them.

So, if the pitch is too high, you will have to use a bigger motor and battery to power it, thus increasing the overall weight of the drone.

You will have to find a sweet spot between the required motor size and the pitch angle for maximum speed.

Lower pitch angle propellers are more power-efficient and have a smoother operation (low vibrations); thus are considered suitable for drones used in photography.

Mode of operation

Some drones come with a special “sport” mode like you will see in most models of the DJI drones.

When you switch to sports mode, the onboard computer disables some of the safety features that make the drone crashproof (forward and downward crash sensors).

Also, it increases the motor output by increasing the power input from the battery. So, how fast a drone can fly also depends on which mode you operate it.

Atmospheric conditions

And finally, the atmospheric conditions also affect the motor output power and how fast a drone can fly.

If you are flying your drone in a low-temperature area like in northern Canada, you can expect a lower power output from the motors due to a lack of full discharge from cold batteries.

This lower output can result in slower speeds for a model that can normally fly much faster in warmer areas.

Related article: How Long Does a Drone Battery Last? 7 Ways to Maximise Flight Time

Wind conditions also affect the speed. When a drone flies forward, it has to overcome the resulting inflow of air that tries to push it back.

The wind blowing in the opposite direction of flight can significantly affect the drone’s speed. It’s like swimming against the current.

Common Commercial Drone Speeds

Below, I will list the advertised speed of some famous commercial drones available in the market.

Remember that these speeds are recorded in perfect lab conditions, and actual speeds can vary based on the flight mode, batteries, environmental conditions, and your flying skills.

Max Speed for DJI Drones

Max Speed for Other Commercial Drones

Max Speed for Racing Drones

Drone Speed Limit by FAA

The flight speed you see from most commercial drone manufacturers is not the max possible speed.

Drones can go much, much faster than these typical speed stickers.

But most consumer drone manufacturers have low max speeds due to one simple reason: no one really needs a high-speed camera drone except for very special applications like FPV drone racing.

But despite having the technical capability of going much faster, most drones limit their speed because FAA and other aviation control agencies do not allow drones to go faster than a specific speed limit.

FAA limits drones to 100 mph. This limit is enforced on all drones in FAA Rule 107 (14 CFR Part 107).

There are other regulations in Part 107 such as how high can a drone fly in an uncontrolled area so if you are going to fly your drone for the first time in the US, it’s a good time to check all the applicable regulations before you push the throttle.

Fastest Drone Record

The Drone Racing League (DRL) Racer X holds the world’s fastest drone record and has its name in the Guinness Book of world records.

On July 13th, 2017, DRL pilot Ryan Gury flew the Racer X drone at the max speed of 165.2 mph (265.87 kph) before it caught on fire and crashed.

This feat was accomplished in the presence of a monitoring team from the Guinness Book.

Before that, they achieved a max speed of 179 mph on the same model, but the Guinness monitoring team did not record that

Below is a video breakdown of how the fastest quadcopter was built and what components were used, along with the actual official video.

Conclusion

Drones are amazing flying machines that can demonstrate great speeds when configured correctly. But do you always need speed?

I would say it depends. Most drones are meant for aerial photography and videography. The slower they go, the better the image will be.

But how fast can a drone fly? Most commercial drones from DJI and other manufacturers have max flying speeds lower than 50 mph.

But if you are into the crazy sports of FPV drone racing, you need to own the fastest machine possible. You either have to buy an optimized racing drone from specialized manufacturers like the DRL, or you can also build one yourself.

All the components for getting your own drone up and ready are easily available off the shelf. When built for raw speed, drones can clock at 179 mph but do remember the FAA limit on the speed is 100 mph.

See you next time :)