Parrot Disco: Pilot Your Own Plane (as a Drone) Michael Kwan August 24, 2016 News, Press Release What’s the one thing that practically all consumer-grade drones have in common? They all have those four rotors spinning around to keep your tiny little aircraft afloat. Have you ever wanted to move beyond the quadcopter to pilot what is much closer to a real airplane? Those dreams are becoming a reality with the unveiling of the Parrot Disco. Groovy, man. As you can quite “plane-ly” see above (sorry), the Parrot Disco features a fixed wing design with a single propeller toward the rear to keep it moving forward. You won’t be able to hover in place like how you would with a quadcopter, but all those guidelines for drone safety still apply. The Parrot Disco comes equipped with a front-facing full HD camera that allows you to immerse yourself in the piloting experience by way of the bundled VR headset too. After donning the Parrot Cockpitglasses, take to the skies with the Parrot Skycontroller 2 in your hands. The Disco also features automatic takeoff and landing; it takes off by you throwing it like a Frisbee after you initiated takeoff mode in the accompanying FreeFlight Pro mobile app. Lots of details and information can be found in the extensive press release below. The Parrot Disco ships next month at a bundled price of $1,699 Canadian. That includes the drone, the VR glasses and the controller. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Fpq4inefg] [hide-this-part morelink=”Full Press Release”] Parrot Disco: The first fixed-wing drone for immersive flights Who hasn’t dreamed of being a pilot? To take a seat in the cockpit of a plane, step on the gas, take-off and see the landscape pass before their eyes? Today, Parrot makes this dream a reality for everyone with the launch of Parrot Disco – the first easy-to-fly fixed-wing drone that provides a fully immersive flight experience. The ultra-lightweight Parrot Disco is powerful, displays impressive airborne performances: it can reach top speeds of 80 km/h and offers 45 minutes of flight time. Previous piloting experience isn’t necessary to control the Parrot Disco. It takes off and lands automatically and comes fully equipped with a powerful autopilot function to help control the flight. For example, when the control stick of the remote control is tilted to the right, the fixed-wing drone will curve in the same direction, while the autopilot takes care of lightly tilting the wing and increasing the speed of the engine. The immersive experience of the Parrot Disco is very intuitive and accessible to all. Parrot has created a first person view (FPV) headset, Parrot Cockpitglasses, which plunges the pilot into the heart of the action by live streaming the airborne footage captured by Disco’s Full HD frontal camera. Parrot Disco can be flown with complete precision thanks to a new and compact remote control – Parrot Skycontroller 2. Model aircraft enthusiasts also will be able to pilot Parrot’s fixed-wing drone from their own RC controller, in full manual mode and after connecting a module. Unique by its design and performance capabilities, Parrot Disco offers everyone the possibility of an immersive flight without having any technical knowledge, and the possibility to record high quality aerial shots using the fixed-wing drone’s 32 GB memory. Availability: September 2016 MSRP: $ 1.699 CAN (Parrot Disco + Parrot Skycontroller 2 + Parrot Cockpitglasses) Parrot Disco: lightweight, compact, powerful A unique aerodynamic shape The compact (58cm x 115cm) Parrot Disco is a fixed-wing drone made from EPP (expanded Polypropylene) and reinforced by carbon tubes, meaning it is both lightweight (750gr) and robust. The Parrot Disco’s wings are especially engineered to optimize both stability and speed in flight, thanks to an exclusive aerodynamic airfoil, which reduces the trail and improves the lift. The extremities of the wings are equipped with Winglet (the vertically hooked part) and mobile ailerons – like on airliners – that are positioned on the trailing edge to support steering. Powerful, for a unique flight experience Parrot Disco shows impressive flight performances. It’s propelled by a brushless engine with a folding bi-blades propeller, which allows the Disco to reach speeds up to 80km/h and resist winds of 40km/h! To fully benefit from this unique flight experience, its Lipo battery offers up to 45 minutes flight time. Parrot Disco: impressive performance and assisted piloting Parrot Disco includes advanced autopilot with no equivalent computing power: Parrot C.H.U.C.K (Control Hub & Universal Computer for Kit), which secures each phase of the flight thanks to its large number of sensors. Automatic take-off and landing To prepare the fixed-wing drone for take-off, the pilot has to simply push the switch found on the upper part of Disco nose, followed by the ‘takeoff/landing’ button of the Parrot Skycontroller 2 remote control, and finally to toss the wing towards the sky like a frisbee. Parrot Disco then takes-off, soaring automatically to an altitude of 50m, and hovers in a circular motion until it receives instructions from the pilot. To land, the pilot must press the ‘takeoff/landing’ button of the remote control. Parrot Disco then inclines its flaps and declines 6m in altitude. At this moment, the drone will receive signals from the altimeter, the ultrasound sensor and the vertical camera, and its engine’s thrust reverses to reduce the speed and ensure a smooth landing in a straight line. Assisted piloting The stability of Parrot Disco comes from the algorithms developed for Parrot C.H.U.C.K., which adapt the parameters of the flight throughout and prevent stalling when the pilot does a critical maneuver. The Pitot tube, used in the aircraft industry, provides the on-board computer with “Airspeed” information, which is crucial to adapt the engine output in real time and to ensure the lift of the device. Coupled with an inertial navigation system (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and altimeter) and a GNSS module (GPS + GLONASS), the direction, the altitude and the speed of the flight are automatically maintained to simplify the piloting of Disco. Finally, for optimum safety, the FreeFlight Pro application features “Return Home” and “geofence” functions making it possible for Parrot Disco to automatically return above its takeoff position – thanks to the precision of its GPS. Manual mode Parrot Disco caters perfectly to model aircraft enthusiasts and is compatible with the majority of RC remote controls. Just connect an RC transmitter (not provided) with the Parrot C.H.U.C.K. The pilot must then deploy his skills to do acrobatics with the fixed-wing drone in full manual mode! Parrot Cockpitglasses: the immersive experience with a smartphone! For the most intense, immersive and extraordinary flight experience, Parrot has created a FPV headset: Parrot Cockpitglasses2. The pilot simply inserts his smartphone3 into the Parrot Cockpitglasses and then can stream live the footage captured by Disco’s 14 Megapixels Full HD frontal camera and enjoy a fully immersive, wide angle and HD vision with perfectly stable images, with no distortion. The pilot also can follow the Disco’s flight path thanks to the display of a radar and telemetric data – placing the controller in the cockpit of the drone. 2 The usage of Parrot Cockpitglasses requires the presence of a co-pilot. Before flying, verify the local regulations. 3 iOS or Android Parrot Skycontroller 2: high precision piloting for all! Parrot Disco comes with Parrot Skycontroller 2, a new and XS-format Wi-Fi MIMO remote control, which offers a 2 kms theoretical reach. Completely redesigned to blur the boundaries between gamepads and RC controllers, Parrot Skycontroller 2 is lightweight (750gr), compact and very easy to handle. Its two joysticks independently maneuver to ensure in flight precision, controlling the drone’s speed, direction, and altitude. Its customizable ‘direct access’ and ‘trigger’ buttons give access to the numerous functions and options of the fixed-wing drone and the Parrot Cockpitglasses. This includes the “direct view” function, which enables the pilot to see Disco through the camera of the smartphone when wearing Parrot’s FPV headset. Parrot Skycontroller 2 can also be connected to an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet via the new FreeFlight Pro application, providing the pilot with seamless video streaming, and a platform to refine the settings of Parrot Disco (e.g. geofencing or limitation of the altitude/of the distance; recording of the video on the 32GB of the flying wing). FreeFlight Pro: the application dedicated to Parrot Superdrones4 The FreeFlight Pro app is available for free on the AppStore and on Google Play. Its intuitive interface enables the user to tailor the commands and flight parameters to their level. This includes speed, limitation of the altitude or distance, management of the Wi-Fi connection, the photo/video parameters, and watch video footage captured by Parrot Disco live from an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet. Parrot cloud, which is also free and integrated with in FreeFlight Pro, saves the data of each flight. FreeFlight Pro also enables users to configure Parrot Skycontroller 2 in order to customize its commands. It also gives users access to ‘Flight Plan’ (in-App purchase option) to easily create automatic flights. [/hide-this-part] Share This With The World!