Teal drone is up for pre-orders, can do 70 mph, stay stable in winds up to 40 mph

(Tech Xplore)—Teal is self-promoted as the world's fastest production drone. A video about it was posted on Wednesday. Its creator told a simple, straightforward story: I moved to Utah and my parents had this huge back yard and all I could think about was flying, he said.

He said he made a drawing, got a few people behind him and said why not. Let's make a drone. He said it is fast and can withstand 40mh winds. He said it is built to run as many apps as you can think of and it has a supercomputer on board.

Among the key features: modes for beginners to hardcore racers; control it from a smartphone, tablet or hobby controller; has something called Teal OS as a software platform, opening the way for people to build apps around it; fast processors on board the drone.

The drone is powered by NVIDIA TX1. It handles machine learning, autonomous flight, image recognition and more onboard. "This makes Teal a flying supercomputer. You can even plug Teal into a monitor, use it like a normal computer, play games on it..."

Teal has a 13MP wide field of view camera that supports 4K video recording and 3-axis electronic stabilization. Videos and photos can be stored directly on built in 16GB storage or to a microSD card.

Speed? How fast is fast? The max horizontal speed is listed as 70 mph. The site FAQ page stated that "Teal can fly over 70 MPH! We've even reached speeds over 85 MPH in certain conditions."

Teal is small enough to fit in a standard backpack without disassembly. The diagonal motor to motor measurement is listed as 261mm.

Ah, endurance. Flight time with high performance battery is 10 minutes.

"Under normal usage, the included high-performance flight battery will last about 10 minutes. Yes, that's less than some other drones; however, we favored having an extremely small, stable, and powerful drone out of the box."

Two batteries are included. LEDs on the back of Teal provide battery status. The Command and Control application also has a battery indicator. Charge time is 30 minutes. Teal has a "hot swappable" capability designed to make switching batteries easy.

(The company also has an "Endurance Package" that doubles flight time to 20 minutes. It's heavier and will decrease the top speed and stability of Teal slightly.)

It is water resistant; it is not waterproof. Teal said it can fly in rain, snow, wind, hail.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company, Teal Drones, is taking pre-orders at $1299 plus $20 for shipping. The order will include two high-performance flight batteries, charger, two sets of propellers, expansion cables, and "some other surprises." They are shipping anywhere in the US but are not yet shipping internationally.

When? "Our Signature Series will ship before Christmas of 2016. If you don't make it into the Signature Series but order prior to August 15th, you'll receive your Teal early 2017."

The Teal team is assembling Teal in the US. Materials are made and molded in Texas, with high hopes for success. "We are in the infancy of the broad applications that drones will be used for. From gaming and augmented reality, security and inspections, e-commerce and agriculture, to purely simplifying and automating drone flight..."

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