Luke Maximo Bell, a South African engineer known for building custom endurance drones, flew a quadcopter for 3 hours, 31 minutes, and 6 seconds on a single charge. That flight was reported in February 2026. It broke the prior small-electric-multirotor endurance record of 3 hours 11 minutes, held by SiFly’s Q12. His build used T-Motor’s “Antigravity” MN105 V2 motors, not the unrelated Insta360-backed drone company of the same name.
What actually made this flight possible?
Bell’s quadcopter used a carbon-fiber X-frame and 18-inch T-Motor carbon propellers. It paired those with T-Motor’s Antigravity-series MN105 V2 motors, running at 90KV. That combination is built for efficiency over raw speed, which is what long-duration flight actually requires. He’s also built a separate solar-powered, battery-free drone using 27 solar panels producing about 150 watts combined.
Wait, is “Antigravity” a drone company?
There are two separate things sharing the name, and they aren’t related. T-Motor’s Antigravity motor line is what Bell used in his record flight. Separately, Antigravity is a consumer drone company, a subsidiary of Insta360 founded by JK Liu. It launched the Antigravity A1, an 8K 360-degree FPV-style camera drone, in mid-2025.
Why does an endurance record like this matter?
Records like this push component makers to improve motor and battery efficiency. That efficiency eventually filters down into commercial and enterprise drones. A multirotor flying for three and a half hours on one charge is well beyond what most consumer or even enterprise drones can do today.
Is the endurance record officially certified?
Not yet, as of the original report. The 3-hour, 31-minute flight wasn’t Guinness-witnessed. Bell said he hadn’t drained those particular batteries before and didn’t want witnesses on hand for an attempt with an unknown outcome, planning a formal, witnessed attempt later. He does hold a separate, Guinness-certified record: the Peregreen V4, a speed-record quadcopter he built with his father, hit 657.59 km/h in Cape Town in December 2025, the fastest battery-powered RC quadcopter on record.
Sources: DroneXL, Antigravity.
