Inches in front of drone — a new animal (7)
I believe the answer is:
inhuman
'animal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'inches in front of drone a new' is the wordplay.
'inches' becomes 'i' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'in front of' means one lot of letters go next to another (some letters go in front of others).
'drone' becomes 'hum' (drone can mean to make a humming sound).
'a' becomes 'an'.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'hum'+'an'='human'
'human' put after 'n' is 'nhuman'.
'i'+'nhuman'='INHUMAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inhuman that I've seen before include "Animal" , "Nasty" , "Cruel, bestial" , "Pitiless - barbarous" , "Beastly" .)