Would it be safe to exceed a battery's C rating for short bursts?
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of 18650 cells. The first is &quot;rapid discharge&quot; or &quot;power tool&quot; type cells and the second is &quot;laptop&quot; or &quot;storage&quot; type cells. The panasonics you mention are laptop cells. They are optimized for large capacity and good cycle life.
Rapid discharge cells are optimized for the ability to deliver very high power. Generally the capacity and cycle life are lower than laptop cells. Rapid discharge cells are used for vaping, power tools, and small vehicles or really any application where the cells go from full to empty in less than an hour (at full load).
What you will notice when rapidly discharging the cells is that &quot;power tool&quot; cells will build up much less heat during discharge at high rates. To my knowledge, laptop cells are never used for quadcopters (or hex- or octo-copters either). You might be able to use them for a long endurance fixed wing aircraft. I am not sure.
So long story short, you should find different cells with a much higher discharge rating.