A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
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| Figure 1: An early instance of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle |
Introduction:
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| Figure 2: Air Balloons "bombing" Venice. |
When most people think of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones, they mainly think of them in the modern sense. In truth, UAVs have been around for much longer, the first instance of a UAV being in 1849. when the Austrian army attacked the Italian city of Venice with hot air balloons laden with explosives (Figure 2). From this point in history, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have continually been developed, primarily for military applications, but more recently the civil sector has seen a lot of growth. Like most aspects of aviation, UAS has a rich underlying history, that isn't necessarily common knowledge. In this blog I will be going over some of the more notable historical events of UAS and how they led to today.
A Pictureesque start:
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| Figure 3: WWI Aerial Photo |
Although today's standards and classifications don't consider them unmanned aerial vehicles, as mentioned in the introduction air balloons were the first recorded UAVs. in 1915 the British used this for a tactical advantage, using aerial photography to map out the German trench fortifications in the battle of Neuve Chapelle.
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| Figure 4: Kettering Bug |
In 1916 the United States began to develop unmanned technology, creating the first "pilot-less" aircraft. Shortly after this, the Kettering Bug (figure 4) was developed by the United states army, which was a major stepping stone for UAS technology. Next, in 1930 the united states began to experimenting with and developing radio controlled aircraft, which led to the creation of the Curtiss N2C-2 Drone in 1937. This technology helped Reginald Denny create the first remote-controlled airplane, the Radioplane QQ-2 during WWII. This was a major development, as it was the first time that major manufacturing of a UAV took place.
Development of Modern UAVs:
For the majority of UAVs history, they were not very practical or cost effective, and seen more as an interesting toy rather than much more. The 1980's is when unmanned vehicles begin to take on more of a modern functionality:
- In 1982 the Israeli Air Force had a decisive victory over the Syrian Air Force by using unmanned aerial vehicles. The Israeli's used UAVs to destroy the Syrian aircraft with minimal losses.
- Later in the 1980's the United States created the Pioneer UAV program to help in the development of UAVs for fleet operations. From this a new drone called the RQ2 Pioneer was developed from a joint operation between the U.S and Israel in 1986.
- In the 1990's small scale UAVs such as quad-copters began to make an appearance, which are now one of the major types of vehicles being developed today.
- In the year 1994 the RQ-1 Predator took it's first flight, entering service in 1995, retiring in the year 2018.
- In 2014 Amazon proposed that they could use drones to make deliveries, which has actually recently seen some success in small tests.
To Conclude:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have gone through many developments and changes over the years. They have recently seen a massive growth in popularity, and new uses are being developed every day. As the technology develops more and more, UAVs will become an ever present facet of our daily lives. Learning the history of this technology will help integrate it into our everyday lives.
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