Your Tellos and Mambos were the last of their kind.

Tello and Mambo are gone, and they aren't coming back

Two of the drones that defined classroom drone education for the past decade are out of production. Parrot Mambo went first, ending production in 2021 during the global semiconductor crisis with no successor model coming. The Tello's manufacturer shut down its Education Division in December 2023, ending the Tello and the Tello EDU. Two years later, the December 22, 2025 FCC ruling and full enforcement of the American Security Drone Act closed the door on next-generation foreign-made classroom drones entering the US market at all.

For the regulatory detail in full, see the drone rules guide. The short version for schools running a Tello or a Mambo program: the platform you built lessons around is on its way out, and the next program platform is a procurement decision that hasn't been made yet.

What a Tello or Mambo classroom needs from its replacement

The Tello and the Mambo both worked because they delivered a specific set of capabilities at a price schools could afford. The replacement test is whether a new platform delivers the capabilities the classroom was already using, plus the capabilities the program needs to grow.

Five criteria worth holding the next platform to:

1. A camera. Tello and Mambo both had cameras. A replacement without one downgrades the baseline hardware the category established.
2. Current-generation capability. Autonomous flight modes and mission planning are now standard expectations for middle school and high school CTE drone work. A platform that hasn't gained new capabilities in many years can't deliver state-of-the-art technology to today's classrooms.
3. A single vendor that owns the full stack and can be held accountable for it. When the hardware vendor at the bottom of a partnership stack pulls out, every company built on top of that stack goes with it. Resellers lose their product. Curriculum companies lose the platform their lessons were written for. Competition organizations lose the drone teams competed with. Schools lose continuity, sometimes mid-program. This isn't a hypothetical. The Tello and Mambo shutdowns wiped out the businesses and curricula built on top of them. A single-vendor platform doesn't eliminate risk, but it eliminates the cascade.
4. A curriculum that grows over the lifetime of the program. The Tello and Mambo curricula stopped growing the day the products went end of life. A program platform should keep adding modules every year, automatically available to every active subscriber.
5. A competition pathway designed for the platform. Multi-vendor competitions design for the lowest common denominator and stack fees on the drone purchase. A built-in competition fits the drone, evolves with it, and adds no fees.

What Hopper offers, point by point against the five criteria

Hopper is designed and assembled in San Diego, California by FTW Robotics. The platform meets all five criteria a Tello or Mambo classroom should be holding its replacement to.

A camera. Hopper ships with a camera as standard equipment. The classroom drone baseline established by Tello and Mambo continues with Hopper, not below it.

Current-generation capability. Hopper includes autonomous flight modes, mission planning and execution, and competition-grade flight operations. Hopper firmware continues to evolve. New capabilities ship over the lifetime of the platform, not just the curriculum around it.

One company, one country, one stack. FTW designs the drone, manufactures the drone, writes the firmware, writes the curriculum (Build Fly Code), runs the competition (BFCC), operates the platform, and stands behind the drone with a lifetime limited warranty. No partnership stack to collapse. No upstream vendor pull-out to cascade through resellers, curriculum, or competition. The platform is the company.

A curriculum that grows. Build Fly Code is FTW's curriculum platform. New modules ship to every active subscriber, with curriculum from upper elementary through high school CTE, college engineering, Part 107 prep, and competition-readiness work. Aerospace pathway modules ship to the platform this summer.

A competition pathway designed for the platform. BFCC is FTW's competition system, built around what Hopper actually does. Three challenges, ten-minute matches, no per-team registration fees, no per-event entry fees. As Hopper firmware evolves, BFCC missions evolve with it.

What a Hopper classroom program costs over three years

The Hopper 12 classroom bundle is $5,600 in year one. The bundle includes twelve Hopper drones, Build Fly Code platform access for year one, an activity set, spare components, the BFCC competition pathway, and a lifetime limited warranty on the hardware. Years two and three are recurring at $995 per year, which covers the Build Fly Code platform renewal at $500 per year and the Essentials Edition spare parts kit at $495 per year (excludes batteries, available separately).

Three-year total: $7,590.

That covers twelve drones, three years of curriculum platform access, three years of spare parts coverage, three years of competition access, and lifetime hardware warranty.

A multi-year district license with three-year prepay is available at a discount on the platform renewal line. For pricing on the larger 18-drone bundle or district-wide deployments, schedule a call.

These are estimates for a single classroom bundle, not a quote. District pricing and multi-classroom configurations require a conversation.

Talk through your Tello or Mambo transition with FTW

If your program is running Tellos or Mambos and you're working out what comes next, a short conversation usually clarifies whether Hopper fits your situation. No pitch, no obligation. Bring your current fleet count, your program scope, and any procurement constraints you're working within.

FTW Robotics

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