Drone aircraft are in the news practically every day. But what is a drone? How is a drone different from a radio controlled airplane? Who flies drones, and why? In this article.
In technical terms, a drone aircraft is an unmanned aerial vehicle,
commonly referred to as a UAV. That means it's an aircraft, of any size
or type, that flies by itself, without an onboard pilot or passengers.
Think of it as a robot plane, controlled either autonomously or via
remote control.
Despite all the recent drone buzz, UAVs are nothing new. In fact,
today's drones resemble nothing more and nothing less than the
radio-controlled airplanes and helicopters that have been available in
hobby stores since when you were a kid. Whether we're talking R/C
planes, R/C helicopters, or the newer R/quad copters, you can call them
all drones and not be incorrect. (Witness the number of hobbyist
companies now calling their R/C aircraft drones. It's a hot term.)
That said, I don't think too many people are going to look at one of
those small R/C copters designed for indoor use and call it a drone, nor
the typical R/C prop plane. In most people's eyes, a drone is something
larger, probably more of a copter or quadcopter than a plane, and
probably loaded with some sort of digital camera to take photos and
videos while aloft.
That is especially true when we talk about commercial and military
drones. These units are typically larger than the drones you can find in
your local hobby store, and often purpose-built. As you can imagine, a
drone used by the military to launch missiles at an enemy target is far
removed from a simple quadcopter designed for fun flying.
In addition, commercial and military drones have much longer ranges
than do hobbyist aircraft. They can not only fly further on a single
charge or tank of gas, but they can also be controlled from a much
greater distance. Whereas most R/C craft can fly only as far as the
land-based pilot's visual range, commercial/military drones can be flown
from thousands of miles away, using a combination of satellite and
autonomous control technologies. This lets a home base remotely control
drones across
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