The History Of Drones

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In todays world drones are becoming ever integrated into society and ever abundant in civil and military lifestyles. If you’ve seen a movie made in the past few years they most likely have shots taken from a drone, and many types of business’s use drones regularly to take pictures that would otherwise cost to much. The military also uses drones heavily from missions that are to dangerous for men, to areas that their men aren’t occupying currently, and from spy missions to taking out bunkers. Drones are almost limitless in their ability as tools, from the commonly thought of quadcopter to the deep sea diving science vessels, they will continue to rapidly adapt into whatever they are needed for. Also the term “drone” simply refers to any unmanned …show more content…

During the early twentieth century the American military developed the more modern idea of a drone as they began studying the idea of a “Flying Bomb," something that could be remotely controlled to assault an enemy target. The U.S. Navy hired Elmer Ambrose Sperry to develop a type of unmanned biplane, filled with TNT, to be launched by catapult and fly to a target and upon a set distance they would be set to plummet to the ground. Unfortunately the program was canceled due to lack funds from the Navy. About two decades later in 1944 the U.S. Navy successfully deployed B-24 bombers filled over capacity with explosives guided by remote control devices into Germany and Nazi-controlled France. Also during that time German’s used their V-1 “flying bomb,” the first cruise missile, which the U.S. quickly reverse engineered. However up to that time drones were only bombs, and soon the switch to unmanned planes, UAVs, that had the ability to return to base and go on multiple missions and even carry multiple cruise missiles was made. The UAV’s used during the Vietnam War where some of the first of their kind and was essentially the turning point for drones …show more content…

The U.S. use of the modern combat drone was during Desert Storm, but the full potential of the combat drone wasn’t used until the war on terrorism and in the 21st century. During this time the U.S. began heavily increasing funding for drone programs creating aircraft that can control the battlefield by gathering surveillance, and striking the enemy without being detected and assisting ground soldiers with supplies. An example of the modern UAV drone is the MQ-9 reaper, capable of flying at altitudes of 50,000 feet, cary an internal payload of 800 pounds and external payload of over 3,000 pounds. The MQ-9 can cruise for more than 40 hours at speeds over 70 knots and can be switched to a complete auto-pilot mode in which computer programs will fly by

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