The customized drone accomplished dual objectives: filming race cars and matching their pace. Engineers design drone reaching speeds over 186mph to film Max Verstappen in his new Red Bull F1 car on the racetrack.
A customized first-person view drone has been developed by engineers that can run the whole Grand Prix lap of Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom at the same speed as Red Bull’s most recentdevelopers from Dutch Drone Gods joined hands with Red Bull’s Advanced Technologies branch to develop a state-of-the-art drone. Their two main goals were to film race cars and to keep up with their pace.
Overcoming enormous obstacles, the team worked to build an airplane that could match an F1 car in terms of turn-acceleration and deceleration. They needed to ensure it could fly around a 3.6-mile circuit at full speed without catching fire from continuous power. Their thinking was based on the idea that they could greatly increase the drone’s battery life by maximizing aerodynamic efficiency. They also took a calculated risk by putting endurance ahead of absolute maximum speed.
The team’s conception and fabrication of the drone’s exterior construction, however, represented the real breakthrough. They used custom carbon CNC work and 3D printing for both prototyping and final manufacturing to painstakingly create a lightweight yet sturdy frame.