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A brief note on the development of drones

Drone flying over the night city
Source Image : istockphoto.com

Drones from time to time

 The drones we know today result from a long journey of research and development by engineers in several European countries. At first, people were motivated to create unmanned flying machines for military needs and to win wars. In the future, UAVs were not only to meet the demands of the military but also for the interests of non-military and drone enthusiasts.

The recorded history of making UAVs is mostly located in mainland Europe, starting from Austria.
1849, the concept of drones began in Austria when they attacked Venice using an unmanned balloon stuffed with explosive material.

In 1907, Jacques and Louis Breguet, helped Charles Richet develop a quadcopter configurated equipped with a gyroplane.

In 1916, British engineer Archibald Low developed pilotless aircraft called Ruston Protector Aerial Target which used a radio guidance system.

1918, Kettering Bug an aerial torpedo built by Us Aemy, this torpedo used gyroscopic control. The four-wheeled dolly used to launch that rolled down a portable track.

To stop the torpedo enginee the system is still very simple compared to the aircraft system, namely the electrical circuit control shut off the engine causing the torpedo to plunge into the earth.

1930, a radio control aircraft called Curtis N2C-2 was built by US Navy, this model was the first experimenting radio control aircraft.

In 1935, British Army developed a drone called Queeb Bee as a radio control manned aircraft

1943, German adopted Queen Bee and began to build V-1 (Vergeltungswaffen), a missile an unmanned device equipped with a magnetic compass, and barometric used to control altitude. Gyros, rudder, and elevator are controlled using pressurized air.

In 1950, US Army built the unmanned spy plane called SR-71 Blackbird, which was meant to gather information in combat areas. Later the SR-71 was updated with the next model Ryan 147B.
To obtain the information collected, the plane must be landed using a parachute.

1980 – 1986 Joint project between USA and Israel developed an inexpensive medium size reconnaissance UAV, the project-built model RQ2 Pioneer UAV.

In 1989, Micro and mini UAVs were introduced the famous one was the Predator. Predator successfully carried out its mission in the war in Afghanistan.

After the success of the predator, it continued with the birth of the latest generation of mini UAVs, including Raven, Wasp, and Puma developed by AeroVironment Inc.

The last 10 years have seen there was a tremendous surge in demand, especially drones for military purposes, agricultural interests, and for hobbyists

Currently, there are drones with various types, functions, and sizes, including:

Currently, several countries that have drone manufacturing industries include:

Multi-rotor drones and their function in Aerial photography, Aerial inspection, Landing surveying, and Agriculture.

Fixed-wing drones and their function in Aerial mapping, Utility inspection, Surveillance, and Agriculture.

Single-rotor helicopter drones and their function as Aerial LiDAR laser scanning.

Fixed-wing hybrid VTOL drones and their functions such as Aerial mapping, Utility inspection, Surveillance, agriculture, Search and rescue.
Several countries that have industry manufacturing drones are the USA, Russia, Turkis, Israel, Azerbaijan, Taiwan, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, India, Indonesia, and many more.

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