The history of FPV drone racing, from the published record.

This section is a history of first-person-view (FPV) drone racing: the flying that came before it, the first races, the bodies and organisers that grew around it, the rules that governed goggle flying in five jurisdictions, and the equipment. It is history only. Nothing here teaches how to fly, build or set up a drone, and how the sport and the law work today is in Learn.

How these pages are written

• Disagreements are shown, not settled. The research behind these pages recorded 15 separate points on which sources disagree, from where racing began to the speed of the Drone Racing League's record-setting drone. Each is given both ways, or every way, with who says what.
• No first race is claimed. No source found for this site documents a first drone race. The origin accounts (Germany, Australia, France and California) are given as accounts.
• Claims are labelled. Founders', organisers' and makers' statements that they were first, or how large they were, are given as their claims, dated.
• The source is named in the text. Facts that rest on Wikipedia alone are attributed to Wikipedia. Facts seen only in a search summary of a page that could not be opened are called unconfirmed. Where the FAI's main site or the FAA's could not be opened, the page says what it relies on instead.
• The law stays in its own jurisdiction. US rules history has its own page, and the UK, the EU, Canada and Australia each have their own section on the other. Association rules (AMA, BMFA, FPV UK, MAAC, MAAA) and racing rules (FAI, MultiGP) are never presented as law.
• Bodies are kept apart. The FAI's championships and World Cup, MultiGP's championships and "World Cup", and the DRL's seasons are separate, and their titles and rankings are never merged. Pilots are named only as each body's results and the published record name them, and pilots with matching names in different bodies' results are not assumed to be the same person.
• No money, and no recommendations. No purchase, funding, fee or prize figure appears, and nothing here recommends a club, organiser, maker or shop.

The pages in this section

Beginnings

1. Origins of FPV flying: FPV model flying from the late 1990s, the AMA's first FPV policy in 2008, and four competing accounts of where racing began.
2. The first races: the first AMA-sanctioned race (May 2015 at Santa Barbara, or April 2015 at Santa Cruz), the 2015 and 2016 US Nationals, the World Drone Prix in Dubai and Australia's nationals.
3. The world championship claims: Sacramento 2015, the DSA's Drone Worlds in Hawaii in 2016 and the FAI's Shenzhen championship in 2018, and who calls each the first.

The bodies and organisers

4. MultiGP history: its 2015 founding, AMA Special Interest Group status on 24 November 2015, its dated size claims and its champions.
5. Drone Racing League history: founding and first-season dates both ways, league-built racers, the RacerX record and a status that rests on Wikipedia alone.
6. The FAI and drone racing: the 2014 working group, F3U and the first World Cup in 2016, F9 Drone Sport from 2019, official status in 2024 and The World Games.

Rules and equipment

7. US rules history: section 336 (14 February 2012) to Remote ID, through the 2014 goggle reading, registration, Part 107, 49 U.S.C. 44809 and TRUST.
8. Rules history: UK, EU, Canada, Australia: each jurisdiction's main dated steps, kept apart.
9. Equipment history: analogue video, rule books' 25 mW limits, league-built racers, the Tiny Whoop and digital video from 2019.
10. Timeline: every main date in four tables, each row labelled by area or jurisdiction, with its source.

Related reading

The bodies as they work today are on the bodies, the FAI's racing class on the FAI F9U rules, and the law in each jurisdiction on its own Learn page. Current seasons and champions are in Events, today's equipment is in Equipment, and terms are explained in the glossary.