Tomas Salvo

Aerospace engineering·Georgia Tech·updated Jul 2026

Fig. A — Reaper · isometric viewNTS

I study aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech. Since February I’ve been building Reaper in my dorm room — a five-kilogram carbon-fiber jet carrying a 250 N turbojet, designed from scratch to become the fastest RC airplane ever flown. This site is the running log.

On its maiden flight Reaper hit 370 mph and landed safely. The record attempt goes to the Mojave Desert next. This summer I join Skydio; before Reaper I worked at Mach Industries and Relativity Space.

Reaper build log · Part 5

The maiden flight

370 MPH

Tomas SalvoJul 2026Part 5

Maiden

370mph

Target

500+mph

Mass

5.0kg

Thrust

250N

I flew my $13,000 world-record (500+ mph) RC airplane that I built in my college dorm. This is Part 5 — the first flight.

01The build

Since February, I’ve been designing Reaper, an aircraft that carries a 250 N turbojet engine, entirely from scratch. I’ve documented the process of engineering the airframe, securing sponsorships from Anduril Industries, Ansys, Jetcat, TRACTIAN, and AutomationDirect, molding and assembling the carbon fiber airframe, subscale testing, and now, flying for the first time.

Anduril Industries AnsysJetcatTRACTIAN AutomationDirect

02The venue scramble

Initially, the plan was to test Reaper in Texas. When those plans fell through last-minute, I got on Google Maps and started clicking through any large farms that had a contact number listed, cold calling to ask if I could test there as soon as possible. I struck gold with a farm in rural Georgia, 4 hours away.

My friends and I drove down on Friday and assembled the 30 ft aluminum launch rail before getting hit with unexpected rain. By the time the rain stopped, it was already dark, so we planned another test attempt for Sunday.

03Flight — 370 mph

On Sunday, after another 4 hour drive, we successfully launched the plane on its maiden flight. GPS data has Reaper hitting 370 mph (600 km/h) at ~70% throttle while remaining stable and easy to fly. Reaper safely landed after ~5 minutes in the air.

Airspeed — maiden, GPS-01GPS · 70% THR

0MPH70% THROTTLE

Achieved370 mph

= km/h600

Target500+

Margin130 mph

Amber = achieved airspeed · cyan = record target. Full arc = 520 mph.

reaper — flight-01.log# maiden flight · rural georgia
$ reaper telemetry --flight 01 --export gps
event    launch        rail: 30ft aluminum
speed    370 mph      (600 km/h)
throttle 70 %
stab     nominal       "stable and easy to fly"
dur      ~5 min
recovery "landed safely"
$ next --venue mojave --goal 500mph

04The footage

The maiden flight and the landing, straight off the range in rural Georgia.

Flight video

Flight videoYouTube ↗

Landing

LandingYouTube ↗

05Vehicle telemetry

The vehicle as flown — thrust, mass, throttle, stability, and endurance. Throttle is the number with the most headroom: 370 mph came at about 70%.

THRUST · JETCAT250 N

AIRFRAME MASS · CARBON5.0 kg

THROTTLE @ MAIDEN70 %

STABILITYNOMINAL

ENDURANCE~5 MIN

06Program timeline

The whole build, in sequence — from the first sketch to launch day.

FEBDesign Reaper from scratch · airframe defined

SPRINGSponsorships secured · Anduril, Ansys, Jetcat, TRACTIAN, AutomationDirect

—Carbon fiber molded & assembled · by hand, in the dorm

—Subscale test article flown · validation pass

T-3dGeorgia venue secured · after Texas fell through

T-0Maiden flight — 370 mph · stable, recovered safely

NEXTRecord attempt — Mojave Desert · goal 500+ mph

07What’s next

Reaper’s record-breaking flight is planned in the Mojave Desert soon. With roughly 130 mph of margin still on the table at 70% throttle, the goal is a clean run past 500 mph — and, if the airframe holds, the fastest RC flight on record.

08Crew & sponsors

Built with hardware and support from:

Anduril Industries AnsysJetcatTRACTIAN AutomationDirect

Huge thanks to Igor Mataitis, Luca Peluffo, and Rodrigo Athanazio for helping with testing.