As [Circuit Digest] demonstrates with their variant of the ESP-Drone project by Espressif, you only need a minimum of parts: an ESP32 MCU, an inertial ... or about $12 USD. The fully assembled ...

Of course, the advantage of using an ESP8266 board over your garden variety MCU is the Wi-Fi connectivity ... the lack of a proper RTC on the ESP means the clock would drift badly if not regularly ...