[CCoffie]

I'd have to say your best option would be the Parrot AR Drone. It's probably will be higher than your price range but it's definitely worth it. I personally have one and have even programmed it to dance to music. It's extremely easy to work with and there are numerous libraries out there for most languages. I highly recommended it, you don't even need to modify the drone to start developing for it. I've built my own quadcopter and would have to say I still prefer the AR Drone when it comes to development.

[ph0rque]

Thanks, I can get a Parrot 2.0 for $200 on my local craigslist. I'll have to think about doubling my budget.

[bangelo]

but it uses JAVASCRIPT. barf

[_ouxp]

What? Sure, you can program them with javascript, but that's not required (just popular). There are libraries for clojure (clj-drone), ruby (argus or artoo), and I'm sure other languages.

[nazka]

What about scala.js? Or Babel, Typescript?