During a press event held in Toronto last night, Parrot provided demos and additional details on its new Minidrone lineup for 2015. Originally announced on the company’s French site earlier this month, Parrot has now confirmed that all of the new models will be arriving for sale in the U.S. and Canada this fall. While the complete lineup consists of thirteen visually distinct Minidrones, the models are grouped into three general product categories: the ground-based “Jumping” drones, the classic “Airborne” drones, and the new water-based “Hydrofoil” drones.
The airborne models build on last year’s Rolling Spider, adding “night” and “cargo” capabilities to the mix. The three “Airborne Night” models – Blaze, Swat, and Mc Clane – provide dimmable LED running lights and will be priced at $129. The “Airborne Cargo” models – Travis and Mars – will retail for $99. This year’s models focus entirely on flight dynamics, dropping last year’s hard plastic wheels.
Successors to last year’s Jumping Sumo, six new terrestrial minidrones are also coming this fall, with three “Jumping Night” models – Diesel, Buzz, and Marshall – designed as night crawlers with LED lights and night vision, and three “Jumping Race” units – Jett, Max, and Tuk-Tuk – designed for pure speed, now capable of reaching up to 8 mph. Each of the Jumping Race and Jumping Night minidrones will retail for $189.
New this year is the pair of water-based Hydrofoil drones, Orak & New Z, essentially flying minidrones that can be attached to a hydrofoil base to motor around the water at up to 5.4 knots. Detached from the hydrofoil base, the drones can fly through the air and perform aerial acrobatics similar to the airborne minidrones.
