You’ve probably seen it in the news, high speed drone racing is becoming a very popular sport. It’s making you think about taking your own drone down to your local park and take it for a spin, which of course is great fun, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about small, tough, very agile, high-speed flying machines with high rez FPV cameras that maneuver in very tight, complex closed racing patterned tracks.
Getting into high speed drone racing is not only very exhilarating, but has several barriers to entry. For starters… you need a good racing drone. If you can’t afford the professional equipment needed for drone racing, and maybe just want to try high speed drone racing out as a hobby, there are several lower cost, quality racing drones on the market.
The Need For Speed
Up until now, only by watching movies or playing video games could you experience a bird’s-eye view while maneuvering through mazes and obstacle courses and neck breaking speeds. But thanks to a new line of hexacopters and quadcopters that have hit the market, just about anyone can enjoy this experience.
Top Racing Drones In 2021
As seen in many top and best racing drones for beginners lists.
Walkera F210 3D High Speed Racing Drone
Walkera F210 3D Racing Drone
As far as an out-of-the-box solution goes in the racing world, the Walkera F210 3D is one of the best drones you’ll find today. It packs both normal and night vision cameras, a sturdy build, simple customizations and a lot of thoughtful longevity features. Not saying it won’t break if you crash it, but they’ve done what they can to protect core components and make the rest easy to replace.
Best of all, you can tweak the flight characteristics directly, adjusting the flight controller to your specifications. The F210 3D is lightweight, we hear it is extremely agile, particularly in those demanding corners of technical courses, and is fast enough to keep up.
We can’t guarantee you’ll win races with the Walkera F210 3D, but if any ready to fly drone purchase was going to get you there, this may be it.
Emax Hawk 5
Emax Hawk 5 Premiere High Speed Racing Drone
We have to admit, the Emax Hawk, and smaller BabyHawk have been on our radar, but didn’t make our list. That is, until we attended the IDRA races at AUVSI Xponential in Denver, the winning racer was flying a Hawk. Pilot skill aside, that’s enough credibility for our list. Hawk 5 is a bit of a larger racing quad, but it’s super fast. Maneuverability is key to keeping speed through a tight course, and the Hawk performed beautifully at the race.
Arris X-Speed 250B
Arris X Speed 250B Best Racing Drone in 2021
A simple design with advanced electronics makes the Arris X-Speed 250B an appealing package. That, and the fact that you pretty much just have to charge the batteries and you’re ready to fly out of the box. Equipped with some assistive flight modes, for the learning flier or lazy flying days, this could be a great package for a new racing pilot.
ARRIS X-Speed 250B RTF is specially designed for fpv drone beginners. It is fully assemble, tuned and tested by the technician before leaving the factory.
UVify Draco
UVify Draco High Speed Racing Drone
The UVify Draco was the first consumer drone that UVify put up for sale. It garnered awards at CES 2017 and became the leaping point for several other racing machines in a series. The Draco was accompanied by the Draco HD — the only difference between the two being the camera. More specifically, the Draco is equipped with analog video transmission, while the Draco HD uses a digital video transmission, both work with FPV gear. There are pros and cons to each, but the Draco with analog video is less expensive, the video stream is lower latency, and more reliable in high-radio frequency areas.
For the racers out there, the UVify Draco is a fairly heavy drone. It is very powerful and fast, but needs a bit more room to make the corners. Draco is ideal for courses with long straights, but maybe grab something like that little Baby Hawk for tight courses.
