Abstract: A device for the high-speed drilling of boards for printed circuits and the like. The device has a support, a drill head with an associated mandrel, and a member for locking and driving a drill bit in the mandrel. The mandrel is actuated by a compressed air turbine and has an optical encoder for encoding the speed of rotation of the turbine and generating a signal representing this speed. The signal is supplied to a control circuit in order to drive a proportional valve supplying compressed air to the turbine as a function of the speed of rotation encoded by the optical encoder.