The History of Drones

On August 22, 1849, Austria used unmanned balloons, filled with explosives, to attack the city Venice, Italy.

The Hewitt-Sperry was the first pilotless aircraft successfully flew, and controlled by a gyroscope. It was intended to be used as a flying bomb.

Following the Hewitt-Sperry, the Kettering Bug was commissioned into development, becoming a more efficient flying bomb, capable of hitting targets 40 miles away.

With its development beginning in the early 1930’s, the US Navy successfully created a radio controlled aircraft system, named the Curtiss N2C-2 drone.

The Radioplane OQ2 UAV was manufactured for use in WW2, with around 15,000 drones created for the army.

Israel developed a series of UAVs intended specifically for surveillance and scouting. These drone were called the Mastiff and the IAA Scout.

Israel’s airforce used UAVs as a major component of their battle against Syria, deeming the implementation extremely successful, as the drones kept Israeli casualties to a minimum.

The US military launches a large-scale UAV development program, intended to further research improve the technology.

A year after Hurricane Katrina, the US government authorizes the use of drones to survey, in order to search for, disaster survivors.

Today drones are used as surveillance, toys, for film and photography, delivery systems, and a developing type of transportation, just to name a few.