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Credit to Author: Erik Franco| Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2017 15:16:38 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n Zoe Stumbaugh’s drone workbench is four feet from her bed. She’s spent the better part of a month, together with her engineering partner, hunched over her workbench trying to build the fastest drone in the world. <\/p>\n “In theory this machine goes up to 170 MPH. We built it to spec to beat the current world record of 163 MPH, which is pretty insane for a drone right now,” Zoe said.<\/p>\n In the span of only a few years, drone racing has gone from a tight-knit group of hobbyists<\/a> to races airing on ESPN<\/a>. And in an industry that’s largely made up of and marketed to young men, Zoe ranks among the top pilots and drone engineers in the world.<\/p>\n Big money is slowly beginning to pour into the industry too. In June of this year, British broadcaster Sky and others invested $20 million<\/a> into Drone Racing League, one of the several drone racing organizations that have popped up around the world over the last few years.<\/p>\n But before she picked up her first drone, Zoe rode and fixed motorcycles with a local Santa Cruz motorcycle co-op. When medical complications left her unable to ride, she turned to flying drones as a means of reintegrating into the world after being bedridden for months. <\/p>\n “I got into [drone] racing because I couldn’t get out of bed,” Zoe said.<\/p>\n When I met with Zoe recently at her home in Santa Cruz, California, she was 3D-printing and soldering the final touches of her custom-built hexacopter to compete in an upcoming, closed-to-the-public drone drag race in San Francisco, hosted by Bay Area-based drone racing organization Aerial Sports League<\/a>, an early mover in the so-called sport.<\/p>\n “This is an interesting event because we’ve never had drag racing starts where you’re going full-throttle off the line. So your launch is a big deal in this race,” Zoe said. <\/p>\n In this episode of Transmissions, Motherboard follows Zoe as she competes and flies with her new, would-be record-breaking drone for the first time.<\/p>\n