{"id":784,"date":"2019-11-08T08:57:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T08:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/?p=784"},"modified":"2021-12-08T16:08:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T16:08:48","slug":"who-invented-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/who-invented-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Invented Drones? A Short History of UAVs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Drones have been called one of the greatest technological inventions of the modern day..but that would make them seem like a recent invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is that the history of drones goes far back in\ntime to a less technological period: the mid-nineteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Who Invented Drones?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The first use of drones in recorded history occurred in July of 1849. It was a time of war, and <a aria-label=\"Austria decided to get creative (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/airminded.org\/2009\/08\/22\/the-first-air-bomb-venice-15-july-1849\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Austria decided to get creative<\/a> in their assault on Venice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In what would mark the first offensive use of air power in\nnaval aviation, the Austrian army used a balloon carrier in an aerial attack on\nthe seaside city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They launched about 200 incendiary balloons on that day, and\nat least one successfully landed and exploded in Venice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each balloon carried a payload; a 24-30 pound bomb that was\nto be dropped by a time fuse once they were over the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a terrifying eye-opener to what could be achieved\nfrom the air in battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately for the Austrians (or fortunately for the\nVenetians), their technology was sketchy and the prevailing winds threw a\nspanner in their works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sea breezes swept most of the aerial bombs far away from their targets \u2014 some of them were even swept back onto the Austrian navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And thus, marked the debut of <em>unmanned aerial vehicles<\/em> \u2014 UAVs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you accept that a &#8216;drone&#8217; is simply an unmanned vehicle then July 1849 marks the true drone debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people insist on defining drones as remote-controlled aerial devices like the modern devices that line our skies today. We&#8217;d agree with that definition, to be honest, especially as electricity (as we know it) wasn&#8217;t even invented when Austria concocted their balloon bombs \u2014 Edison only invented the lightbulb 30 years after this took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a fiasco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No other army thought of taking to the skies like this for fear of bombing their own lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n\n            \n            \n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal aawp-product--ribbon aawp-product--sale\"  data-aawp-product-asin=\"B07ZJZMFFH\" data-aawp-product-id=\"4470\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"dronesvilla20-20\" data-aawp-product-title=\"DJI Mavic Mini CP.MA.00000120.01\" data-aawp-geotargeting=\"true\">\n\n    <span class=\"aawp-product__ribbon aawp-product__ribbon--sale\">Sale<\/span>\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07ZJZMFFH?tag=dronesvilla20-20&amp;linkCode=ogi&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1\" title=\"DJI Mavic Mini Drone\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            <img class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/31iPTd2nOyL._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"DJI Mavic Mini Drone\"  \/>\n        <\/a>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07ZJZMFFH?tag=dronesvilla20-20&amp;linkCode=ogi&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1\" title=\"DJI Mavic Mini Drone\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            DJI Mavic Mini Drone        <\/a>\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n            <ul><li>12MP \/ 2. 7K Quad HD 3-Axis Gimbal Camera<\/li><li>Up to 30 Minutes of Flight Time<\/li><li>Stream HD Video from up to 2. 5 Miles<\/li><\/ul>        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__footer\">\n\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__pricing\">\n                                                        \n                            <span class=\"aawp-product__price aawp-product__price--current\">&#36;304.43<\/span>\n            \n                    <\/div>\n\n                <a class=\"aawp-button aawp-button--buy aawp-button aawp-button--amazon rounded\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07ZJZMFFH?tag=dronesvilla20-20&#038;linkCode=ogi&#038;th=1&#038;psc=1\" title=\"Buy on Amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\">Buy on Amazon<\/a>\n            <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n    \n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Nikola Tesla\nDemonstrating \u201cTeleautomation\u201d (1898)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On a rainy summer day in 1898, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the\n\u201cTeleautomaton\u201d to an astonished crowd at Madison Square Garden\u2019s first\nElectrical Exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the first ever radio controlled device in the form of\na miniature boat. There were actually two devices: one that could be controlled\nremotely above water, and another with a hidden loop antenna which could be\ncontrolled under water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He kept the core technology hidden at the time to prevent them from being stolen \u2014 a problem he struggled with all his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he later revealed that it consisted of a method for\nencoding and decoding wave frequencies directly from within the device. His\ndevices required a system within them that was capable of toggling actions\nbased on different signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, we know this as a logic gate, and this forms the\nbasis for a host of industries and inventions that feed the UAV industry today.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These include: the modern computer, robotics, radio,\nwireless connections, and of course, remote controlled vehicles and weapons\nalso known as drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Wright Brothers\nand the First Flight (1903)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Two years prior to Tesla\u2019s 1898 unveiling of the\nteleautomaton, two brothers, bicycle repairers, had begun studying everything\nthey knew about flying machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They were Orville and Wilbur Wright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1902, after having read up all the knowledge that was\navailable on the subject of aeronautics and applying them, they were ready to test\ntheir first glider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They took their glider to their favorite testing ground,\nKitty Hawk Beach. It was there that over the years they had been able to safely\ntest all their ideas, failing dramatically and adding to their knowledge each\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that windy day in 1902 proved a turning point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their glider not only worked that time around, but they were\nable to make more than 700 more successful flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having perfected glided flight, they turned their pursuits\ntowards powered flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No automobile manufacturer could supply an engine that was\nlight enough and powerful enough for what they had in mind, so Orville and\nWilbur decided to design and build their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would take over a year of hard work, experimentation, and\ninnovation for everything to come together just as they needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then finally on December 17, 1903, Orville Wright became the first man to pilot a powered airplane. The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Original Footage!!! First Flight Mlitary Airplane 1909\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dtZ8MxuePno?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three more flights were performed that day, with Wilbur\npiloting the record flight which lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In anticipation of this momentous event, the Wright Brothers had notified several newspapers. However, only one \u2014 their local newspaper \u2014 bothered mentioning it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is indeed fitting that the two pillar-technologies that would lead to the drone technology which we enjoy today were developed at the very same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In hindsight, they seem like a match made in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The First Military\nDrones<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A mere 13 years after the Wright Brothers took off into the air and into history with the first powered flight; Great Britain produced the first pilot-less winged airplane&#8211;the Ruston Proctor Aerial Target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The manufacturers based their design on Tesla\u2019s work \u2014 that&#8217;s Teleautomation Tesla, not Elon Musk&#8217;s Tesla \u2014 and the device was operated with radio waves just like the drones we have today, although the technology was much simpler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Aerial Target was basically a flying bomb that England built to counter the German Zeppelins, even though it was believed by those who built it that it could be used against targets on ground as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, following several abortive prototype launches, the British military decided to abandon the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They didn\u2019t believe that pilotless aerial vehicles had\nmilitary potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Americans thought otherwise and unveiled their own version just a year later: the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane. After an impressive showcase for representatives of the US Army, an upgraded, mass-producible model was asked for, named the Kettering Bug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, 1918, the Kettering Bug was a technological marvel. But it was created too late to be deployed in the closing stages of the First World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The First RC Drones<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By the 1930s the US Navy began experimenting with\nradio-controlled aircrafts. These efforts led to the creation of the Curtiss\nN2C-2 Drone in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, the interest in remote-controlled drones\nwas heating up across the Atlantic and the British produced \u201cQueen Bee\u201d, the\nradio-controlled target which their military went on to use for target practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cQueen Bee\u201d is credited for the adoption of the word drone to designate unmanned aircrafts that are specifically radio-controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time the Second World War rolled around the\ntechnology available was just right for remote-controlled aircraft to be\nmass-produced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edward M. Sorenson is credited with inventing a\nradio-controlled aircraft that could fly out of sight. He patented his\ninvention, which was a device capable of knowing what the drone was doing from\na ground terminal, even when the drone was out of sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And by the early parts of the Second World War, Radioplane\nOQ-2 developed by Reginald Denny became the first mass produced remote controlled\nUAV product. Nearly 15,000 of these Radioplane OQ-2 units were produced for the\nUS Army during the Great War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>RC Planes Mass Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Breakthroughs in transistor technology in the 1960s, paved\nthe way for miniaturized radio-controlled components. These were readily\navailable to the public at affordable prices; leading to a popularity boom for\nRC planes in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RC plane models during this period usually came in toy form, offering various models ranging from indoor flyable versions to much larger outdoor models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The First Military\nDrone Strikes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The use of drones in military combat during The Second World War and the Cold War is well documented. However, well into the 80s, they were perceived as largely unreliable and expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was not until 1982 that the Israel Army showed the\npotential of drones for warfare in a coordinated, astonishing display that left\nthe Syrian fleet in tatters, all with minimal losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But even then the Israel army used drones to recon the enemy\u2019s position, hamper communications, and act as decoys to avoid the loss of pilot life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this display increased the profile of drones as weapons of war (for example, the US spent dozens of millions of dollars in drone contracts), there were no drone strikes involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first drone strikes actually took place in the aftermath\nof 9\/11 when the CIA deployed drones over Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first drone-based kill occurred in 2002, and was carried\nout by a Predator drone targeting someone suspected to be Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, the target turned out to be an innocent man who was out collecting scrap metal. Concerns about using drones in warfare remain till this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The First GPS Drone<\/strong>s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the rise of commercial drones, most UAVs did not have\nGPS modules built in. Pilots operated them by remote control and this took a\nlevel of skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is no longer the case today as most drones have a GPS\nbuilt in to enable smart control features to ease control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, GPS restricts drones from exceeding 400 feet in height, keeping them out of danger along aerial routes. Options such as the \u201cHold Position\u201d and \u201cReturn to Home\u201d, as well as \u201cAutonomous Flight\u201d are all GPS-assisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many experts trace the rise of these non-military,\nconsumer-friendly GPS devices to 2006 when the FAA issued the first drone\npermits. This is a pivotal moment in the history of drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only did this remove some of the restrictions on recreational flying, it also opened the door to many of the innovative uses for drones that we see around us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drones have been called one of the greatest technological inventions of the modern day..but that &#8230; <a title=\"Who Invented Drones? A Short History of UAVs\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/who-invented-drones\/\" aria-label=\"More on Who Invented Drones? A Short History of UAVs\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg",825,457,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones-300x166.jpg",300,166,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones-768x425.jpg",768,425,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg",825,457,false],"img_rate_products_categories":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones-552x306.jpg",552,306,true],"img_rate_products_slideshow":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg",825,457,false],"img_rate_products_preview":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones-168x93.jpg",168,93,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg",825,457,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/who-invented-drones.jpg",825,457,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Sam","author_link":"https:\/\/www.dronesvilla.com\/author\/sam\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Drones have been called one of the greatest technological inventions of the modern day..but that ... 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