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The winged drone will have an auto-land mode
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Drones for consumers are becoming more and more popular although they are mostly quadcopters but now the Parrot Disco drone has wings.
Quadcopter drones have flooded the market especially in the last month when drones were among one of the most popular and slightly eccentric Christmas gifts. Of course, drones were first used in the military where their design has been advancing over the years and became ‘winged’ long ago.
Now the military successfully uses drones with wings for reconnaissance or surveillance missions. But there’s no need to be envious if you’re only playing with a quadcopter. You can now have your own winged drone from Parrot.
The new Parrot drone is called Disco, weighs 700 grams and it is very similar in design to a model airplane. It has fixed wings and can reach speed of up to 50mph and fly up to 45 minutes. The camera has 14 megapixels and it’s located at the front of the drone.
Besides its design, the drone’s other features are pretty similar to the other drones Parrot has produced. Disco can be controlled via Wi-Fi through the Parrot tablet and smartphone app called FreeFlight. The company also recommends using the Skycontroller, a more professional app.
Like any other drone, the new winged drone features a set of sensors like GPS, barometer, gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. Similar to an airplane, Disco also has a pitot tube which is used to measure airspeed.
Although it isn’t really the only fixed-wing drone available on the market, the company emphasized at CES on the fact that Disco is easier to use than other devices. The only thing you have to do is a quick shake to situate it and then toss it in the air and there you have it – your Disco drone is airborne.
The hard part however should come when landing the drone. However, this part is not difficult either as the Disco comes with an auto-land feature. The drone will fly back to where it took off and then slowly circle downwards until it lands.
Parrot has not yet revealed the price for the Disco drone but they are hoping to make it available for consumers by the end of the year as currently the winged drone is only a prototype.
Image source: clubic.com
