Drones and Unmanned Aircraft Technology Essay Paper

Drones and Unmanned Aircraft
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Drones and Unmanned Aircraft
It is not surprising that developments people enjoy today are all tied to war. As countries are warring, each tries to gain an advantage over their enemy, and this often means thinking beyond what the enemy considers probable. Well, drones are not any different and as will be shown later, the drone technology started as a way to outshine an enemy. Regardless of how the technology started, one cannot fail to acknowledge how the technology is currently being used in the world. Companies like Amazon are using it to deliver goods, others are using drones in agriculture, and directors are using drones to shoot movies and music videos. This paper seeks to delve deeper into the topic of drones. First, a history of drones will be provided followed by the rules and regulations of drones. Rules and regulations are crucial for any development to help avoid or dissuade people from inappropriate use. The third part of the article will involve the use and applications of drones. Here, details of how drones are currently being used in the world will be provided. Finally, the last section will discuss the projected future of the drones as well as any technological developments touching on drones or drone technology.
History of Drones
Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as they are also called have been around for a long time. Initially, drones were developed for military purposes to help gain an advantage over enemies. The first instance of drones can be traced back to 1849. While trying to gain an advantage over their enemy, Austria decided to use unmanned balloons that were loaded with explosives to attack Venice. The Austrians were successful but only to a small degree as some of the balloons exploded in the Austrian camp as well. Kozera (2018) writes that “despite all these inventions and preparations, the efficiency was negligible. According to the Venetians, only one bomb exploded within the city, what comparing to 60,000 artillery shells fired upon the city with conventional artillery seems utterly insignificant.” In his article, Kozera calls the Austrian drones wind-guided because they depended on wind. Even though Venice surrendered in the next two days, it was not because the drones were successful.
However, in spite of the failure, the balloons opened the door for exploration and advancement. The British military was next in line to try and take advantage of the technology. In 1915, O’Donnel (2019) writes that the “British military used aerial photography to their advantage in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. They were able to capture more than 1,500 sky view maps of the German trench fortifications in the region.” At this point, the possibilities of having the technology to explore the sky were nearing reality. Gaining an advantage over an enemy by the use of aerial photography is a feature that did inspire the development of drones.
The history of drones would not be complete without mentioning the U.S. and its developments during the First World War. In 1916, O’Donnel writes that the U.S. “created the first pilotless aircraft.” At this point, UAV technology was not foreign and the determination of the U.S. proved successful. In 1937, with developments and continuing and UAV technology improved to greater levels, the U.S. created the Curtiss N2C-2 drone. This was a major win for the U.S. that started to mass-produce drones. However, drones were still considered unreliable. Additionally, they were costly to produce and this meant that even countries as rich as the U.S. could not incur that cost.
However, in spite of the above, the Israeli military managed to change the world’s mind by successfully carrying out an attack using drones. However, as indicated by Kreis (1990), this was not new to Israel because the Israeli Air Force (IAF) had also used “UAVs both for reconnaissance and as decoys since the early 1970s.” However, it was the successful attack in 1982 that showed the world that UAVs are here to stay and are becoming a deadly weapon. In his article, Friedman (1983) offers details of how Israel was using UAVs to “test the radar frequencies and reactions of Syrian surface-to-air-missile batteries and to provide televised aerial reconnaissance of Syrian positions.” When the U.S. saw what Israel was doing, it joined forces with it and both countries developed the RQ2 Pioneer in 1986. From this point, UAVs have been mass-produced and have been used to launch attacks as well as in manhunts like when the U.S. used drones to look for Osama in Afghanistan. Today, UAVs are used for entertainment and people can freely own drones and use them for recreational purposes.
Rules and Regulations of Drones
Rules and regulations exist for all technologies. However, and as is often the case, these rules and regulations are specific to countries. This means that there are no specific rules and regulations that help to govern the use of drones worldwide. In this section, focus will be on the U.S. and the rules and regulations that apply here. It should be noted that the rules are different for commercial a...