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Elisha

What is a "drone"?

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I think you air/military industry (pilots and (ex-)military) can help me out with this and someone may have posted before.

It seems the media has redefined any flying remote control object a drone, which just bugs the crap out of me. Since when is a toy helicopter (yes, quadcopters too) a drone?

I'm hoping this doesn't get political, but I know that is an easy possibility with this crwod.:P

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Words can have many meanings. Drone used to mean a worker bee.

"The media" hasn't redefined the word "drone"; the world has.

Further, there are commonly used terms such as this with fairly vague definitions and then there are very precise legal definitions of things. Frequently the two are confused for one another by the general public.

Consider the terms; Trademark, Copyright, and Patent.

Each means very different things, but the general public tends to use all of them interchangeably.

It makes pedants crazy, but that's life.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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I would consider a drone to be a UAV that is capable of flying itself.

But that's my opinion on the matter.
"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

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Elisha

Well, yes but...

I believe someone here may have posted a military definition recently that was fairly specific and not what the media has adopted. Anyone know that again?



What does it matter what the "military" definition is? Are you in the military? Are you planning on operating a military drone?

Probably not.

What you want is the FAA definition.

Google it.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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Quote

It makes pendants crazy, but that's life.

I realize it's probably autocorrect that got you, but damn that's funny :D

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Elisha

I think you air/military industry (pilots and (ex-)military) can help me out with this and someone may have posted before.

It seems the media has redefined any flying remote control object a drone, which just bugs the crap out of me. Since when is a toy helicopter (yes, quadcopters too) a drone?

I'm hoping this doesn't get political, but I know that is an easy possibility with this crwod.:P



I thought drones were Borg.:|
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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JerryBaumchen


About a week ago I read a newspaper article where the FAA said that they have authority over paper airplanes.

Bureaucracy run amock IMO.



They do have jurisdiction over all navigable airspace within the US. This includes a paper airplane flying in that airspace.

Not that the FAA is a perfect organization, but I don't think that particular side of them (airspace regulations) is out of hand. I really don't like advocating for them, i'm not on their side.

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The word 'drone' makes a large number of military people cringe actually. The term is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or more recently Unmanned Aerial System (UAS...system used because of the capabilities in addition to the airframe).

Without going into the existentialism of a UAS platform, drone would imply that it is mindless or absent of thought and therefore flying about conducting reconnassiance, missile strikes, etc. mindlessly when it is in fact controlled remotely by someone capable of thought and decision making.

Drone was picked up in the media and the world has kind of stuck with it. I can't really speak to the implications of using the word 'drone' to describe civilian stuff.

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Incorrect, the first UAVs date back to Vietnam and they have been calling them UAVs for a long time. With equipment upgrades and integration of targeting/missile packages they swapped V for an S. Not saying that people in uniform have never referred to them as drones but the nomenclature is and has been UAV. Like I said, drone is a 'dirty' word for the manufacturers, operators, and maintainers.

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From your wiki link.

"The birth of U.S. UAVs (called RPVs at the time) began in 1959 when United States Air Force (USAF) officers, concerned about losing pilots over hostile territory...The 2 and 4 August 1964, clash in the Tonkin Gulf between naval units of the U.S. and North Vietnamese Navy initiated America's highly classified UAVs into their first combat missions of the Vietnam War."

I would also encourage a visit to the Military Intelligence Museum at Ft. Huachuca if you ever find yourself in Arizona. Lot's of good information there about the UAVs and you can probably catch a glimpse of the ones they use to train operators with flying around down there. It's about 1.5 hours south of Skydive AZ.

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Just because the author of the article uses the word 'drone' to describe it in every paragraph does not mean it was refered to as a 'drone' by the people using them at the time.

'Venice is to be bombarded by balloons...'
"flying bomb"
"aerial torpedo"

The only real reference I see to it being called a drone is the targeting 'drones' for anti aircraft gunners. Any reference to a UAS with some sort of reconnaissance or offensive capability is referenced as a UAV/UAS.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/should-we-call-them-drones-or-uavs

"When my colleague Catherine Crump and I were writing our drones report in 2011, we talked over what terminology we should use, and decided that since our job was to communicate, we should use the term that people would most clearly and directly understand. That word is “drones."

Drone proponents would prefer that everyone use the term “UAV,” for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or “UAS,” for Unmanned Aerial System (“system” in order to encompass the entirety of the vehicle that flies, the ground-based controller, and the communications connection that connects the two)."

'Drone' is used because the public readily recognizes it but as we all know, the public can be and often time is lacking of a true understanding.

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