iFixit

The four motors and their electronic controllers are each held to the central cross by six screws and a connector.

Each brushless motor runs at 28,000 RPM while the AR.Drone is hovering, and as fast as 41,400 during full acceleration.

The speed of the motor is managed by the electronic controller, which includes an 8-bit microcontroller and a 10-bit ADC.

The arduous task of peeling the protection blister from the body reveals the camera ribbon cable and the second magnet that holds the hull in place.

A little bit of prying and the front-facing VGA camera comes right off.

The 93 degree wide-angle camera can stream its video and images directly to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

With a resolution of 640x480 pixels, we doubt anyone will be filming HD movies with the AR.Drone's camera.

With Augmented Reality, objects captured by the camera become part of the AR.Flying Ace game.

The central cross easily pulls right out of the foam shell.

The two sets of wires in the central cross are responsible for controlling and providing power to the four motors.

The tubes of the cross are made of carbon fiber to save weight and provide plenty of structural rigidity.

The other plastic pieces are made of polyamide 6,6 (PA66), more commonly known as nylon.

• Yes, there are different variations of nylon, but it's not necessary to explain the differences between condensation and open-ring polymerization right now. Let's just get back to tearing down the AR.Drone.

Parrot AR.Drone Repairability: 9 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

• The battery and upper case come off easily without removing a single screw.
• Almost everything is attached via ribbon cable connectors and screws, making replacement much more feasible.
• Parrot provides replacement parts and repair videos for common problems. Repair wouldn't be very easy without both of these.
• The c-clips on each propeller assembly are very hard to remove without the correct tool.
• It's a pain to reapply adhesive after removing all the adhered parts.