Meet George Matus, the 18-year-old CEO of drone company Teal

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of flying drones with 18-year-old George Matus, the CEO of a new drone company, Teal.

I had the pleasure of flying with George Matus!

He’s launching what is expected to be the world’s fastest production drone, which can fly more than 70 mph and up to 85 mph in certain conditions.

The drone does more than just carry a camera through the air. It’s got a module to add a thermal camera — a useful application for everything ranging from search-and-rescue operations to firefighting to farming. Another add-on module gives the drone sense-and-avoid capabilities via radar. The drone also flies at more than 70 mph, making it a sure bet for people wanting to get into drone racing.

George Matus’ Teal drone

At about 10 inches in diameter, it’s small enough to easily tuck into a backpack pocket, and a set of ports on all sides make it possible for users to upgrade modules.

“DJI is our main competitor, but they are focused on camera drones,” Matus said. “Every drone out there is niche, built for a specific-use case.”

Read the full profile I wrote on Matus and his company over at MarketWatch.

Otherwise, check out Teal’s specs here:

TEAL AIRCRAFT SPECS

• Max Horizontal Speed: 70+ MPH
• Wind Resistance: 40 MPH
• Flight Time (High Performance Battery): 10 minutes
• Flight Time (High Endurance Battery): 20 minutes
• Thrust to Weight Ratio: 4.8:1
• Diagonal Size (Motor to Motor): 261mm
• All Up Weight: 730g
• Payload Capacity: 500g
• Body Material: Carbon Infused/Polycarbonate Plastic
• Connectivity: 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, HDMI 2.0, GPIO, FPV Cam/Tx, PWM/PPM/DSM/Sbus
• GPS Modes: Standard, Differential, RTK
• Hover Accuracy: Standard 1.5m, Differential: 0.5m, RTK: 0.1m
• Range WiFi: 300ft, Extended WiFi: 2500ft, 2.4ghz Tx: 5000ft+

TEAL DRONE CAMERA

• Sensor: 1/2.3″, 13MP
• Lens: 150° FOV, f/2.5, focus at ∞
• Image Size: 4224×3156 (4:3)
• Recording Modes: 4K/24fps, 1080p 30fps, 720p 60fps
• Electronic Stabilization: Yes
• Photo Filetypes: JPEG, PNG
• Supported SD Card Types: Micro SD, up to 64GB
• Live Digital Video Stream: Yes
• Live View Quality: Up to 720p
• VR Headset Compatible: Yes

TEAL DRONE PROCESSOR

• Model: NVIDIA TX1
• GPU: 1 TFLOP/s, 256 core
• CPU: 64­bit ARM A57 CPUs
• Memory: 4 GB LPDDR4, 25.6 GB/s
• Storage: 16 GB eMMC, SDIO, SATA

TEAL FLIGHT BATTERY

• Capacity: 1800mah
• Voltage: 15.2v
• Battery: Type Lithium Polymer
• Energy: 27.36Wh
• Net Weight: 250g
• Discharge Rating: 45C

TEAL CHARGER SPECS

• Voltage: 2s­4s Lipo Compatible
• Rated Power: 50W

OTHER FEATURES ON TEAL DRONE

• Ready To Fly: Yes
• Aerobatic Capable: Yes
• Waypoint Navigation: Yes
• Geofencing: Yes
• Autonomous Flight: Yes
• Follow Me Mode: Yes
• Automatic Landing: Yes
• Return To Home: Yes
• Sense and Avoid via Camera: With future update