Meet Disco, Parrot's 80kmph fixed-wing cruising droneMumbai, Jan 6(AZINS) Consumer drones have undergone a large number of changes over the past few years; decreasing in size and cost, improved camera mounts and gimbals, better range and battery life and more features. But the overall build of drones has remained largely the same. That is, until someone got tired of it.

Consumer drone manufacturer Parrot has announced their latest drone at CES 2016, called Disco. Instead of the traditional quadcopter design with landing "legs", Disco is built as a fixed-wing cruising aircraft, although it doesn't hurt that it looks like a stealth bomber. To launch, you simply throw the drone into the air, and wait for it to reach cruising altitude. Once there, it just circles your general area until you decided you want to take control (or it's battery dies). The drone has onboard sensors, an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, and all the features already in higher models of Parrot's offerings like an auto pilot and GPS path plotting. As a bonus, the autopilot also stop you from stalling the aircraft like the klutz you are and letting it fall out of the sky.

The Parrot Disco weighs about  700g and has a top speed of 80 km/h, faster than most drones on the market right now. Because of it's unique design, Parrot says the drone also has markedly better battery life, up to 45 minutes of flight on a single charge. The Disco also comes equipped with a 14MP camera in the nose, just like the Bebop, and you can connect to a viewer headset to get a bird's eye view as you fly. No word on just what the drone's limitations are though. Landing is as easy as taking off, the video demonstrates the Disco just hits the ground belly-first. While the price has yet to be announced, Parrot says it'll be available in the first half of 2016.