THE WORLD R/C SPEED RECORD
The World Glider R/C Speed Record is a subject that crops up on a regular basis on the Soaring Listserver in the USA. The record that has passed into R/C mythology; that of 242 mph (390 kph), was set in 1978. That's over 20 years ago! This could be before many of you were even born...

Although a magnificent achievement at that time, don't try to relate it to your own slope flying because the record was set over a 50 metre course and 6600ft up an Austrian mountain at the end of an enormous dive! And, of course, the air is thinner (19%) that high above sea level. If you want to read more, and see a 3-view of the model called the Pfeil, there's a contemporary article on to download. I scanned the 3 pages below (~800Kb) of the original since the original magazine is unavailable 20 years on.

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  • The course length is now 200 metres and not the 50 metres mentioned above.
  • The speed record is currently held by Klaus Kowalski of Germany at 239.70 kph (149mph) over a 200 metre course.
  • It was set on 20th July 1991.
  • The record has to be the calculated from the average time of a pass in each direction over the course, in the same flight and within a 30 minute slot.
  • Claims higher than 150 mph must be electronically timed (i.e. no stopwatches).