The world’s fastest mini drone comes from Shenzhen! On May 12, Xu Yang, a student from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), released a video introducing his homemade aircraft PROWESS, which set the Guinness World Record for the fastest mini drone. PROWESS, currently the fastest mini drone in the world, weighs only 247 grams but can reach speeds of up to 340 kilometers per hour.
Xu Yang, a student from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), is debugging the mini drone.
Born in 2002 in Jiangmen Taishan and raised in Shenzhen, Xu Yang is a local student. He told reporters that he started engaging with model aircraft in elementary school, graduated from Shenzhen Experimental High School, and is currently a junior majoring in Electronic and Computer Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).
In the video, Xu Yang explained that inspired by the shortcomings of other aircraft, he began designing the prototype of PROWESS using an iPad in October 2024. After five months of development and testing, he achieved the highest speed for a quadcopter under 250 grams and received official certification from Guinness World Records.
PROWESS achieved a final speed of 340.78 kilometers per hour, and even reached 358 kilometers per hour with a tailwind.
The aircraft PROWESS.
“According to the v1.1 test, the expected speed was only 320 kilometers per hour, but it exceeded by 20 kilometers per hour,” Xu Yang analyzed. He attributed this unexpected improvement to two main factors: the battery was preheated to maximize discharge performance, and the shell was polished and painted, using ultra-light clay with some aerodynamic adjustments.
After challenging the record, Xu Yang tested the range of PROWESS, cruising at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, with a flight time of about 4 minutes and a range of approximately 8000 meters.
Despite the impressive achievements of his homemade aircraft, Xu Yang chose to open-source all the blueprints of PROWESS. “If you are interested in it, any questions or suggestions for improvement are welcome for discussion, and I will respond to each one,” Xu Yang invited interested netizens to provide feedback at the end of the video.
Source: Southern Metropolis Daily