A small group of people showed up on a sunny morning at Amaral Ranches in California’s Salinas Valley to see something amazing. SiFly, a young American drone company, sent its Q12 drone into the air on July 26, 2025 for a flight that would break records. With a 3 hour, 11 minute, 53 second flight time, the Q12 set a Guinness World Record for the longest flight by an electric drone between 5-20kg.
SiFly came out of stealth in May 2025 and in just a few months has turned heads in an industry dominated by giants like DJI. The Q12’s record breaking flight, which beat the previous record by almost an hour, is a drone that can do what others can’t: fly farther, carry more and stay airborne longer. Unlike the short bursts of flight of most commercial drones, the Q12 delivers endurance that rivals light helicopters, all while keeping costs grounded. It can hover for 2 hours or cruise for over 3 with a 10lb payload and 90 mile range, opening up applications that were previously out of reach for electric drones.
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So what makes the Q12 work? SiFly’s developers looked at the limits of traditional quadcopters – boxy, battery hungry designs that can’t stay in the air for more than 30 minutes. Their approach begins with the battery, which accounts for about 60% of the drone’s weight, a number carefully chosen to balance power and efficiency. These are not special cells, but regular lithium-ion 21700 batteries like those found in electric cars that discharge at a rate that keeps the Q12 flying without burning out. Add to that a streamlined fuselage with aerodynamic “skins” and propellers designed for low drag and you have a drone that sips rather than guzzles energy.
The Q12’s rotors are also key to its success, as SiFly chose smaller, smoother blades that look like aviation propellers rather than the chunky, twisted ones found on other quadcopters. These spin slower, reducing noise to a near silent hum at 1,000 meters and allowing the drone to glide through the air with a lift to drag ratio like a helicopter. During the record breaking flight the Q12 orbited autonomously in a 600 meter wide circle at 50 meters altitude, cruising at 31mph. When the battery was down to 2% the crew brought it to a hover, exhausting the last of its power before a soft landing, all in front of 8 witnesses including a NASA engineer and an Apple veteran.
Brian Hinman, SiFly’s CEO, sees the Q12 as a game changer in industries like agriculture, public safety and infrastructure inspection. Farmers could use it to map large fields with high resolution cameras like the Sony ILX-LR1 that is already built into the Q12. First responders could use it for search and rescue missions, carrying thermal sensors or even medical supplies 90 miles without recharging. The drone is modular and can be disassembled and stored in a bag and the swappable batteries mean no docking station is required.
The FAA is close to finalizing its Part 108 rules which will make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations routine. These rules will enable long distance missions like package delivery or wildfire monitoring where the Q12’s range and payload capacity will shine. SiFly has already seen market response: within 90 days of launch the company received pre-orders for hundreds of Q12 units from public safety, mapping and agriculture customers. Deliveries will start in early 2026 and SiFly is already planning a 4 hour flight time within a year.
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