The Gen XY Lifestyle
Re-inventing the Joy of Flight
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” — Leonardo da Vinci
We live in a time where flight is merely a means to an end. A time where the great polymath’s wisdom bear no weight in a world where even the latest smartphones are better placed to deliver that exhilaration to you.
Or is it? I beg to differ with the new Parrot Disco FPV.
Unlike most, if not all drones in the market, the Parrot Disco is not a quadcopter; it is a single fixed-wing drone, which effectively makes it a mini aeroplane. The Parrot Disco is capable of speeds of up to 80 kilometres an hour, has a 45-minute battery life, and features an effective control range of almost 2 kilometres and when used with the Skycontroller 2.
This mini aeroplane features a stabilised, Full-HD front camera and 32GB of internal storage to capture the stunning view of its flights. The video can also be streamed to your phone (up to 720p) and viewed in the first-person perspective when used with the Parrot Cockpitglasses for possibly the most exhilarating and immersive experience you can have on a casual weekend afternoon — the onus is on you to make it exciting, of course.
If you’ve seen the videos and are worried that it’ll be difficult to pilot well, you’re not wrong, but Parrot has taken care of the rocket science, so you don’t have to. The drone has an onboard computer system (Control Hub and Universal Computer Kit, or C.H.U.C.K. for short) that runs real-time algorithms with information captured by a range of sensors. These include a Pitot Tube, altimeter, gyroscope and ultrasound so that it can take care of important elements like flight parameters and the autopilot feature. Beginners and professionals alike can easily toggle between assisted piloting or manual mode whenever they like.
Its lightweight carbon and EPP body was designed to fly like an actual plane, so you can execute straight lines as well as turns, steep dives and climbs to enjoy all the freedom there is to be had as a free spirit in the air. Icarus would have been proud (the sun notwithstanding).
S$2,399 with Parrot Cockpitglasses and Parrot Skycontroller 2, and available at: Challenger, Popular, Courts, iStudio, Newstead Group, Cumulus Nimbus, Epicentre, Action City, SingaHobby, K Kopter, Parisilk, Gamemartz, Gain City, Skyhobbies, ToyKar, TOG, A-Mobile.
