CES announcements and demos are going to dominate tech news this week. One of the first out of the gate is Parrot, the French based drone company, which is showcasing a prototype of its new fixed wing DISCO drone. And granted their Youtube video is a promo but it looks pretty awesome.
There are several features that make it a compelling offering – it will have FPV goggles, allow one to pre-program a flight plan, has a flight time estimated at 45 minutes and has a high speed engine (though they do not define high speed).
You launch the drone as you would a paper airplane or frisbee. Parrot claims, “This will be the first ‘ready-to-fly’ wing-shaped drone, and the first everyone can easily pilot.” The DISCO uses the same 3-axis digital stabilization of the Bebop drone camera. It takes off and lands automatically for completely renewed user experience and soft, safe landings.
The DISCO can go into “Loiter” mode and orbit around a point of interest. The wing design (the wings detach) was “conceived with the help of senseFly engineers.”
Currently there is no official release date or price. Parrot says their goal is to make DISCO available later this year.
Disco Prototype specs:
- Front nose camera FullHD 1080P
- First person view thanks to live video stream
- Lightweight and robust design to ease maneuverability
- Automatic take-off and landing thanks to ground sensors
- Easy to pilot thanks to assisted flying modes
- Flight time around 45 minutes
- Waypoints with Flight Plan (* in-app purchase)
- GPS return home
- Extended Wi-Fi range with Parrot Skycontroller
- Detachable wings for easy transport
Here is the video:
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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