Parrot Disco is a fixed-wing drone that has been developed so that anyone can fly with minimal fuss. Not only that, but pilots will be given a full first person view of the flight through a VR headset.

Most of us have dreamed about piloting some kinda of flying machine, whether an X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Viper or a regular aircraft.

The Parrot Disco promises to be the first easy-to-fly fixed-wing drone that will offer a “fully immersive flight experiece”.

Parrot Disco specifications

The Disco weighs less than 700 grams and is made from flexible plastic foam (EPP) which is reinforced with carbon tubes. It is powered by a single rear propeller which can push the drone to about 50 mph for flights up to 45 minutes.

It is pretty compact too, measuring a very reasonable 58cm x 115cm.

Parrot CHUCK

Thanks to a list of system of sensors – accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer and GPS/GLONASS, plus a pitot tube for airspeed – you should be able to get airborne with minimal fuss.

All of that cleverness has been given the name CHUCK: Control Hub and Universal Computer Kit.

CHUCK makes it possible to simply throw the Disco into the air and have it automatically ascend to 50 meters (164 feet). From there it will fly in a circle until you give it a command.

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Once you’re up, turning left and right is as easy as pushing a direction on the right control stick, and the same goes for changing altitude. The left stick controls acceleration.

There is a ‘takeoff/landing’ button which makes it pretty obvious that some things are taken care of automatically.

For landing, Parrot Disco inclines its flaps and declines 6m/19ft in altitude. At this point, the drone will receive signals from the altimeter, the ultrasound sensor and the vertical camera. Then its engine’s thrust reverses to reduce the speed to ensure a smooth landing in a straight line.

Disco control

Parrot has created a smaller Skycontroller. This version is again, less scary than other drones in Parrot’s hanger. Even so, the new controller still has a theoretical range of 1.2 miles (1.9 km).

Above the controls is a holder for your smartphone (iOS or Android) so you can use Parrot’s FreeFlight Pro app for a live view with telemetry.

The app interface also lets you set speed, altitude and distance limits and your wireless and photo/video settings. Oh yeah, the drone captures photos and video and slings them to its 32GB of internal storage.

Now, here comes the most awesome bit. Disco comes with Parrot Cockpitglasses. These aren’t for sipping cocktails from whilst you fly the drone. These glasses furnish you with a first-person-view (FPV) of what’s going on up in the air.

Once you insert your smartphone and connect to the controller via USB you get the view from the aircraft’s nose-mounted full-HD camera.

If you need to see something on the ground while you’re flying, the Cockpitglasses can switch to the view from your smartphone’s rear camera.

Parrot says that the latency from the aircraft to the Cockpitglasses is about 250 ms.

Stop droning on

I’ll wrap this up here. Suffice to say, the Parrot Disco looks like an awesome bit of kit for any wannabe Top Guns. Just imagine the first person view dogfights that you could have!

The best thing is that you don’t have to wait ages to be able to buy one!

Parrot Disco price and availability

The Disco drone is available now from Amazon, Argos, et al. For the Parrot Disco, Parrot Skycontroller 2 and the Cockpitglasses you will need to cough up £1,149.99