Drones

The Original and Modern Day Drone

Drones are something almost anyone can get their hands on today. They are used in a variety of different fields. Today drones are used to capture live events, in commercials, surveying areas, and it is now used by law enforcement. The first ever drone was created in the early 20th century. Yet prior to 2006, drones were only used by the military.

What if I told you the first concept for a drone dates back to 1849. Austria wanted a way to besiege Venice without using much manpower, so they decided to use unmanned balloons full of explosives and launch them into the city. Up until that point, the idea of an unmanned weapon had never been thought of before. It would not be another 70 years until this idea would be used in a military way. 

The first ever pilotless aircraft was created in WWI. It is the earliest form of a drone. The United States was trying to create a mini unmanned aircraft that would be used for the same purpose as Kamikaze planes used by the Japanese. The major difference would be of course that there would be no person inside of the aircraft. Nicknamed the “Kettering Bug”, this early form of a drone would be built for WWI, yet it was not used as it was not ready by the time the war ended.

The military drone would take a bigger leap a few decades later when the United States entered the second World War. The United States was able to create the first ever remote controlled aircraft known as the Radio Plane OQ-2. Fun fact, Marilyn Monroe spent her time during the war working at a California Plant assembling OQ-2’s for the United States military.

After WWII drones did not see many major technological advancements until the
Israeli government created what is known now as a UAV. This device was used to guard Israel from any potential enemies without putting any soldiers in danger.

The biggest technological advancement for the drone came in 1994 when the CIA partnered with a company General Atomics to better fund what would be known as the modern day predator drone. The predator drone has been updated but it is still being used today. In 1994 the predator drone was used just for surveillance purposes to fly over Afghanistan looking for Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

A few years later after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 1st, 2001, Congress passed that drones would now be able to have weapons on them and could be used on enemies of the United States.

Drones have been used for military purposes more than we could ever imagine. A study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that between 2004 and 2014 the CIA organized close to 400 drone strikes in Pakistan killing more than 3000 people, and those are just the strikes we know about. Drone strikes have continued to be used throughout all of the wars that the United States have been fighting in and plan to be used for like this for a very long time.

Now that drones are available to the public they serve a variety of uses besides in the military field. 

Real estate agencies frequently use drones for commercial use to capture that best pictures of real estate that they can. Amazon has been looking at using drones
for delivery since the year 2014. They claim that if drones are available for delivering use they could make shipping drop to just a staggering 30 minutes.

Overall drones have mostly been used to hurt other people but their use is very important in our society. They help humans achieve heights (no pun intended) that we thought we could never see. Places and areas we thought humans could physically never get to look at. Drones have been around for a while but when it comes to the public they are very new. The world of drones is very exciting and it seems to have a very bright future.