Hopper has a camera too, plus an onboard IR sensor and a computer vision platform the Tello and Mambo never had. American-built, still in production, and consistently gaining capability.
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 should be made with care.
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:
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 handles autonomous flight, mission planning and execution, and competition-grade flight operations. It also carries an onboard IR sensor and a computer vision platform that FTW is unlocking over time. That is the real differentiator. The sensing hardware is already on the drone, and the software keeps turning more of it on. A frozen platform has neither the sensors aboard Hopper nor a way to add any.
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.
Technology that keeps improving. Hopper is not frozen at what it ships with. Firmware adds capability over the life of the platform, the software and support tooling keep advancing, and Build Fly Code keeps adding modules for every active subscriber, from upper elementary through high school CTE and college engineering to Part 107 prep and competition-readiness work. The drone gets better, not only the lessons around it.
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.
FTW Robotics was Parrot's education partner and reseller for the Mambo from 2018 through 2021. Mambo schools that bought through FTW are FTW customers. Hopper is the platform FTW built to replace the Mambo after Parrot ended production. The relationship continues.
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, which includes replacement batteries.
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.
Most Tello and Mambo replacements are paid for with federal CTE dollars. Perkins V will fund a drone pathway, but since December 2025 it will not fund an aircraft from a covered foreign manufacturer. See the Perkins V funding guide for what qualifies, what gets flagged, and how to write the request.
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 designs and manufactures Hopper in San Diego, California, writes the Build Fly Code curriculum, operates the platform, and runs the BFCC competition system. We've been involved in classroom drone education since 2018, first as Parrot's education partner and reseller for the Mambo, and now as the manufacturer of Hopper, the platform we built to replace the Mambo when Parrot ended production.
FTW serves the full training arc, from upper elementary through service academies. Customers include upper elementary classrooms and fifth grade STARBASE programs at the elementary end and the United States Naval Academy at the post-secondary end, with middle school, high school CTE, and college engineering programs in between. Hopper is the training spine across a learner's pre-career years.
One company. One country. One stack.
For schools and procurement officers working through a Tello or Mambo replacement decision, FTW provides component sourcing documentation, NDAA compliance posture, three-year program cost worksheets, and direct conversations with the CEO. Reach out.
This page reflects the classroom drone replacement landscape as of May 18, 2026. The federal framework, product availability, and competitive landscape continue to evolve. The page will be updated as material changes occur.
To suggest a correction or talk through a specific situation, contact FTW.
To everyone who owns a Hopper: thank you.
Some of you bought the very first Hopper in 2023. You believed before it was easy to, and we made you a promise, that it would get better, and better, and better.
We meant it every time we said we were close. We genuinely believed it, every time. The truth is it was harder than we imagined. Way, way harder. It took longer and cost more, in every sense, than we could have known. But we stood in it. For years. And then came the breakthrough.
Firmware 2.0 is here, and it is not a small step. It is a magnitude better, honestly a hundred times better than Hopper has ever flown. And every existing Hopper receives it, free, because that was always the promise.
We are proud of this one because we killed for it. And we couldn’t have done it without you. The early adopters gave us real feedback in real conditions, and that is exactly what now teaches an .ai platform that gets more intelligent with every flight, made smarter by the people in our network.
FTW is one of the few American drone companies that owns its entire telemetry and flight control stack. Wholly owned. Zero outside dependency. And it’s genuinely good. We have been teaching and learning on real systems, across the country, the whole way.
This July 4th, we shipped an American flight stack. And it’s actually good.