18-Year-Old’s Startup Rolls Out Teal, World’s Fastest Commercial Drone

[HardOCP News]

Some kids are fascinated by spaceships and flying machines. Others spend hours building model airplanes. Or memorizing names of their favorite space craft. But only one kid has built a drone at age 14, won a fellowship from a tech investor at age 17, and a year later launched a record-breaking product under his own company. Meet George Matus, Jr., a lifelong flight enthusiast, former teenage world champion drone pilot, Thiel Fellow and CEO of Teal Drone. At age 18, George rolled out his company’s first product, which happens to be the world’s fastest production drone, capable of flying 85 mph. “Teal,” as Matus put it, “is the realization of a dream.”

Powered by NVIDIA Jetson TX1, Teal is an airborne supercomputing platform. The drone, which will be available soon, will ship fully assembled with the onboard flight control Follow-Me feature, which allows the drone to autonomously follow a person. Plus it comes with a partially charged battery so you can immediately unbox Teal and start having fun.

 

[TechLarry]

Go George. Enjoy it until it's legislated out of existence. If you're lucky, one of the big guys will buy you out for a billion or two before that happens.

 

[Ducman69]

That is most certainly not the world's fastest drone though, just the fastest that can hover. Heck, the military is releasing a Falcon HTV-2 soon that flies at 13,000 MPH and has a skin that can withstand 2K degrees C higher than the melting point of steel.

Maybe fastest commercial quad-copter UAV is the right word?

 

[Deleted member 184142]

Damn.

I was hoping some sort of gimbal or the like when I read it had a 4k camera, but it seems to be only forward facing and meant for drone racing. The 85mph top speed really got me going for a second as I do auto racing and this would have been great for keeping up with a car, but would be totally useless without a proper camera setup. Sure, there are other drones that can do that with a proper camera, but they are in the 10k+ range.

 

[Gman1979]

That is most certainly not the world's fastest drone though, just the fastest that can hover. Heck, the military is releasing a Falcon HTV-2 soon that flies at 13,000 MPH and has a skin that can withstand 2K degrees C higher than the melting point of steel.

Maybe fastest commercial quad-copter UAV is the right word?

HTV stands for Hypersonic TEST Vehicle. It's just the next step in development of hypersonic cruise missles. It's not a drone at all.

 

[Ducman69]

Damn.

I was hoping some sort of gimbal or the like when I read it had a 4k camera, but it seems to be only forward facing and meant for drone racing. The 85mph top speed really got me going for a second as I do auto racing and this would have been great for keeping up with a car, but would be totally useless without a proper camera setup. Sure, there are other drones that can do that with a proper camera, but they are in the 10k+ range.

If the resolution is so crazy high, and the FOV wide enough, couldn't you just do software stabilization by cropping out the shakes/tilts?

 

[Ducman69]

HTV stands for Hypersonic TEST Vehicle. It's just the next step in development of hypersonic cruise missles. It's not a drone at all.

No pilot, programmable mission, carrying various payloads, and can land and is reusable = not a cruise missile. Cruise missile by contrast is merely designed to deliver ordinance on target, and is destroyed in the process.

Also, it says for Hyper-sonic TECHNOLOGY Vehicle, not that it really matters. Definitely a UAV rather than pure ICBM.

 

[Deleted member 184142]

If the resolution is so crazy high, and the FOV wide enough, couldn't you just do software stabilization by cropping out the shakes/tilts?

No.

Having a single angle kills about 95% of the shots people like to make, this would ONLY work for following form behind, anything else would require drone rotation, slowing and flicky video. Not to mention with movement from slowing/rotation etc, you would end up cutting out lots of the FOV ruining any "cool" shots you are trying to get and would make setup unGodly hard and make editing far FAR more time consuming.

 

[Gman1979]

No pilot, programmable mission, carrying various payloads, and can land and is reusable = not a cruise missile. Cruise missile by contrast is merely designed to deliver ordinance on target, and is destroyed in the process.

Also, it says for Hyper-sonic TECHNOLOGY Vehicle, not that it really matters. Definitely a UAV rather than pure ICBM.

The vehicle you are describing is not considered a drone. Period. It's a test bed for sustained hypersonic missle flight.

The weapons system you're attempting to describe is known as HSSW.


Boeing X-51 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"X-51 technology will be used in the High Speed Strike Weapon (HSSW), a Mach 5+ missile planned to enter service in the mid-2020s."

You had the right idea but wrong weapons system in mind, and it won't be deployable for around a decade.


Also, no one mentioned ICBMs. Just drones and cruise missiles.

 

[Ducman69]

The vehicle you are describing is not considered a drone. Period.

The vehicle is described as a unmanned aerial vehicle. Period.

UAVs or UASs are commonly referred to as drones. Period.

And its a test bed for a whole plethora of hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicles, both reusable and not based simply on its speed: Lockheed Gets NASA Funding for the SR-72 Hypersonic Spy Drone

NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a modest $892,292 earlier this month to study the feasibility of developing an unmanned hypersonic spy plane called the SR-72. This superfast recon drone, first teased in November 2013, would fly at speeds of Mach 6.0, or 4,500 mph. According to the Lockheed website, the SR-72's design will take into account lessons from other attempts at supersonic flight, namely the rocket-launched Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program.

Period x 10^(period)...

But in any case, lets not get too off topic in a pissing match, and respect this for what it is, a fast quad-copter rather than the fastest drone.

 

[viscountalpha]

That is most certainly not the world's fastest drone though, just the fastest that can hover. Heck, the military is releasing a Falcon HTV-2 soon that flies at 13,000 MPH and has a skin that can withstand 2K degrees C higher than the melting point of steel.

Maybe fastest commercial quad-copter UAV is the right word?

Fastest commercial drone. Why would you compare something you can buy to something you can't?

 

[Gman1979]

The vehicle is described as a unmanned aerial vehicle. Period.

UAVs are commonly referred to as drones. Period.

And its a test bed for a whole plethora of hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicles, both reusable and not based simply on its speed: Lockheed Gets NASA Funding for the SR-72 Hypersonic Spy Drone

Period x 10^(period)...

But in any case, lets not get too off topic in a pissing match, and respect this for what it is, a fast quad-copter rather than the fastest drone.

There's no pissing match to be had. The program you're describing is dead. They decided to go another direction.
DARPA Falcon Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In July 2013, DARPA decided it would not conduct a third flight test of the HTV-2 because enough data had been collected from the first two flights, and another test was not thought to provide any more usable data for the cost. The tests provided data on flight aerodynamics and high-temperature effects on the aeroshell. Work on the HTV-2 would continue to summer 2014 to provide more study on hypersonic flight. The HTV-2 was the last active part of the Falcon program. DARPA has now changed its focus for the program from global/strategic strike to high-speed tactical deployment to penetrate air defenses and hit targets quickly from a safe distance."


So this is going into production soon you claimed right?


Because the quoted NASA program you posted was the HSSW I mentioned before. The HTV-2 is dead.

 

[Ducman69]

Fastest commercial drone. Why would you compare something you can buy to something you can't?

It was just an extreme example I recalled from watching a video a little while back, about a drone going thousands of miles per hour, and pointing out that this is not the fastest drone which should be common knowledge.

We've had various RC planes (including jets) with onboard camera systems for years now, some FPV to boot, but quads have always been pretty slow. Google FPV Funjets, which are popular from Multiplex for many years, and those guys fly well over 150mph. This is apparently the fastest quad, but obviously not the fastest drone at under 90mph. So many flavors, why choose to be salty?

 

[Gman1979]

If you're going to bring RC planes into this then at least there's some common ground in the thread.

I learned to fly RC from Jeff Foley. If you look him up, you'll find he built the first submarine launched drone.

 

[DrLobotomy]

Does it put out forest fires??!! /s

 

[Ducman69]

If you're going to bring RC planes into this

Well, that's all this thing is. The only difference between fixed wing camera RC vehicles and the "copter" camera RC vehicles is that the copters can hover but are usually slow, and the fixed wing can only fly slow rather than hover (ignoring headstands and rotating motor designs) but have always, and surely always will be, more efficient flyers and capable of superior top speed. A little annoying that people often forget that we fixed wing camera fliers exist, except when talking about larger scale government drones.

 

[viscountalpha]

It was just an extreme example I recalled from watching a video a little while back, about a drone going thousands of miles per hour, and pointing out that this is not the fastest drone which should be common knowledge.

We've had various RC planes (including jets) with onboard camera systems for years now, some FPV to boot, but quads have always been pretty slow. Google FPV Funjets, which are popular from Multiplex for many years, and those guys fly well over 150mph. This is apparently the fastest quad, but obviously not the fastest drone at under 90mph. So many flavors, why choose to be salty?

Generally you're on the money. And i like reading your posts. I'd love to hear about something that's next in line or very comparable for that market.

 

[G_Sup]

Am I the only one that noticed it has a 300ft flight range? Great if you want to go around in circles in a very confined area.

 

[Gman1979]

Am I the only one that noticed it has a 300ft flight range? Great if you want to go around in circles in a very confined area.

There's not enough information in the article to know why that's the limit, but it could be entirely arbitrary or be alterable by changing out the radio components. It could also be because, at top speed, it's too difficult to see to control due to size. The kid could also just be playing it safe and understating the range so he doesn't get customers complaining when they have less than idea radio conditions where they're trying to fly.

 

[TrailRunner]

There's not enough information in the article to know why that's the limit, but it could be entirely arbitrary or be alterable by changing out the radio components. It could also be because, at top speed, it's too difficult to see to control due to size. The kid could also just be playing it safe and understating the range so he doesn't get customers complaining when they have less than idea radio conditions where they're trying to fly.

I interpreted the article to read that the quadcoptor is being controlled by a smartphone via WiFi. Usable WiFi distance is 300 feet.

 

[Spidey329]

That is most certainly not the world's fastest drone though, just the fastest that can hover. Heck, the military is releasing a Falcon HTV-2 soon that flies at 13,000 MPH and has a skin that can withstand 2K degrees C higher than the melting point of steel.

Maybe fastest commercial quad-copter UAV is the right word?

That's more accurate. There's been a few quad copter capable of that speed. But they're aimed primarily at the racing crowd, so they don't and up in the major publications/stores.

 

[Spidey329]

I interpreted the article to read that the quadcoptor is being controlled by a smartphone via WiFi. Usable WiFi distance is 300 feet.

It says in the spec sheet, 300ft for standard smartphone wifi, 2500ft for the extended range antenna.

There's some antennas coming out for drones that use directional switching (focused beams at both pilot and drone) to maintain a data link at 10k ft.

 

[andrewaggb]

Am I the only one that noticed it has a 300ft flight range? Great if you want to go around in circles in a very confined area.

That's exactly what I thought. You can go 85 MPH but only for 300ft.... lol

Though I've used wifi gear that go several kilometers and they do say 2500ft with their extender, so I'm sure it's if you are using your phone. Still seems like a pretty serious limitation

 

[Spidey329]

I also find it funny that this 18 year old managed to bring a rather decently advanced drone to market before all of the Kickstarters we saw years ago that managed to raise VC funding off of their success.

Important lesson, it's not always the amount of money raised, but the importance of who is supplying it. I'd take less from Thiel versus a lot of the VC firms out there. This kid probably worked his ass off and did things on a do-it-yourself shoestring budget, whereas a traditional VC approach gets you a ton of bloat and unnecessary bureaucracy. There's a great film called "Print the Legend" on this.

One of the mentors I have does some of these deals for Thiel. She told me it's easier to raise $50mil versus $5mil. To do as much as possible before getting outside capital.

 

[DocSavage]

That's exactly what I thought. You can go 85 MPH but only for 300ft.... lol

Though I've used wifi gear that go several kilometers and they do say 2500ft with their extender, so I'm sure it's if you are using your phone. Still seems like a pretty serious limitation

I'm sure if you're trying to actually race this drone through a course, you'll be using some real controls and a vr helmet type display and not a smart phone.

 

[csgill75]

I have a friend who races 250 size quads and his is good for 93mph. That was confirmed by a radar gun. It can't sustain it for more than a couple minutes though. It's a kit that you build and not pre-built. As far as rotor aircraft, helicopters are faster. SAB Goblin Speed is a 150mph Heli.