Hey guys, I was reading up on drone history and was surprised to learn that drones go way back! Apparently, they started as simple unmanned balloons and have evolved a lot. Does anyone know more about how they came to be and who was behind all this tech?
Yeah, it’s a crazy history! I think some French guys made the first unmanned balloon back in the 1700s. Not exactly a ‘drone’ like we know today, but still a start.
Lior said:
Yeah, it’s a crazy history! I think some French guys made the first unmanned balloon back in the 1700s. Not exactly a ‘drone’ like we know today, but still a start.
Oh wow, that’s way earlier than I thought! Do you know what they used it for?
@Feng
They just sent it up to see if it’d fly, honestly. It was made of linen and silk, powered by burning wool and straw. Pretty cool for back then!
Lior said:
@Feng
They just sent it up to see if it’d fly, honestly. It was made of linen and silk, powered by burning wool and straw. Pretty cool for back then!
Amazing to think that was the start of it all. Imagine their reaction to today’s military drones lol.
From what I remember, Abraham Karem is the guy credited with the modern drone. He started working on UAVs in the 1970s. His work basically led to the Predator drone, which is huge in military history.
Sawyer said:
From what I remember, Abraham Karem is the guy credited with the modern drone. He started working on UAVs in the 1970s. His work basically led to the Predator drone, which is huge in military history.
Didn’t Karem move to the U.S. and start a company that made drones? I think he originally came from Israel or somewhere in the Middle East.
@Tate
Yep, he was born in Baghdad and raised in Israel. He moved to the U.S. and started a company called Leading Systems. That’s where he created a prototype drone called the Albatross.
Sawyer said:
@Tate
Yep, he was born in Baghdad and raised in Israel. He moved to the U.S. and started a company called Leading Systems. That’s where he created a prototype drone called the Albatross.
That’s cool! I heard the Albatross weighed like 200 pounds… seems crazy compared to the small drones we have now.
Didn’t Tesla try making a radio-controlled boat or something? I heard he played around with remote control tech way before UAVs were a thing.
Kirin said:
Didn’t Tesla try making a radio-controlled boat or something? I heard he played around with remote control tech way before UAVs were a thing.
Yep, that’s right. Tesla made a radio-controlled boat in 1898! It wasn’t in the air, but it definitely set the groundwork for remote control tech used in drones.
@Marin
Wow, Tesla was really ahead of his time. Makes sense that his work would influence drone tech later on.
I read somewhere that the U.S. military used drones way back in WWII. They had these drones for training anti-aircraft gunners. Can anyone confirm?
Orin said:
I read somewhere that the U.S. military used drones way back in WWII. They had these drones for training anti-aircraft gunners. Can anyone confirm?
Yep, they did! The U.S. had something called the Radioplane, which was used to train anti-aircraft gunners during the war. They made over 9,400 of these for practice.
@Wilkie
That’s insane! I never thought drones went that far back in military use.
@Wilkie
For sure. They actually produced a lot more Radioplanes after the war too, like around 60,000 of an updated model. Really popular tech for training.
Anyone know why they’re even called ‘drones’? I’ve heard the term ‘Queen Bee’ used back in the day.
Mitchelle said:
Anyone know why they’re even called ‘drones’? I’ve heard the term ‘Queen Bee’ used back in the day.
Good question! The British Royal Navy made a drone in 1935 called the ‘Queen Bee’ for target practice. People think that’s why they started calling UAVs ‘drones’.
@Kim
Interesting! Makes sense since bees have that ‘swarming’ behavior, kinda like drone swarms today.
Crazy how drones have evolved. The military used them a lot in Vietnam, right?