Engineer James Whomsley talks jet-powered cars, RC aircrafts and YouTube success
Engineer James Whomsley (UK) tells us all about his adventures in the world of RC vehicles in the latest episode of Guinness World Records podcast What’s The Record?
He sat down with host Will Munford and Adjudicator Will Sinden, the company’s internal engineering expert, who admitted he was “in awe” of what James has achieved.
And that is a long list of very cool things!
James first entered the record books in 2023 when he designed and built an RC car that achieved a blistering speed of 152.50 km/h (94.76 mph).
Watch the episode in full here…
That car earned him the title of fastest speed achieved by an RC jet-powered car and his need for speed didn’t stop there.
He went on to break four more records:
- Largest RC model aircraft carrier - 5.02 metres (16.46 ft)
- First RC model airplane take-off and landing on an RC model aircraft carrier
- Largest wing span on a rocket-powered RC fixed wing aircraft - 5.90 m (19 ft 4 in)
- Largest RC wing-in-ground effect (WIG) aircraft - 6.29 metres (20.63 ft)
James with GWR’s Will Munford and Will Sinden
James explained how he first found a love for engineering as a child playing with Lego.
When host Will asked what a five-year-old amateur engineer looks like, James explained: “Well, it just looks like a normal kid who plays with Lego.
James with his jet-powered car
“That’s an engineer in my books – learning to build things either from instructions or from their brains. That was me.”
He added: “I was also into making things from cardboard – it’s a fantastic material that’s very accessible.
James on his RC aircraft carrier
“I used to go to Tesco with my mum and she’d say, ‘Excuse me, do you have any cardboard boxes that my son could have?’”
James added that when he got to school, he found he was dyslexic and also struggled with numbers, but while studying history, he found a great passion for the history of engineering.
James’ RC WIG effect aircraft
He studied the subject at university and after graduating, started up his YouTube channel, ProjectAir.
James posts videos of his engineering projects and, of course, his record-breaking adventures to an audience of over 800,000 subscribers.
James said: “I started the channel in 2017 – so nearly 10 years ago now – and it’s just been getting the projects bigger and more complicated and more ambitious in terms of their goals and what I actually want to achieve.
“And that’s culminated in world records, so it’s definitely been a big journey but it’s ongoing and I still have a long way to go until I reach my limit.”
Read about more records like the ones James has broken in our Science and Technology section.
And of course, while we had him in the studio, we surprised him with a new record challenge.
Can James achieve the fastest time to complete three figure of eights by an 1:24 RC car?
Check out the episode to find out!
Watch the first episode of What's The Record? in full on YouTube or listen on Spotify.