The History of the Drone
The very first UAV was invented and used by Austria, Who invented it is not clear. In any case, it was Austria itself.
Then inventors (and brothers) Jacques and Louis Bréguet started working on it. Then it became not only a hot air balloon, but actually an unmanned aircraft. Louis Charles Bréguet was a French aircraft designer and lived from 1880 to 1955. Jacques Bréguet was a French engineer and lived from 1881 to 1939.
Then in 1917 we had a radio-controlled unmanned aircraft based on RC technology by the inventor Nikola Tesla. He was an inventor, electrical engineer and physicist and is considered one of the greatest engineers and inventors of all time.
Finally, we have Reginald Denny with the radio-controlled airplane called the Radioplane 0Q-2. He achieved success as an English stage, film and television actor. Furthermore, he was a pilot and UAV pioneer. He was also once Britain's amateur boxing champion. Denny bought an aircraft design from Walter Righter in 1938. He marketed it as ' Dennyplane' and a model engine under the name 'Dennymite'. In 1940, Denny and his partners entered into a contract with the U.S. Army. This involved the radio-controlled target drone, the Radioplane 0Q-2. During World War II, they made nearly 15,000 drones for the U.S. Army.
History Timeline
1848
Austria
Austria was the first country to attempt unmanned aviation, during the two-year war (1848-1849) between Austria and Italy. On Aug. 22, 1849, unmanned hot-air balloons equipped with bombs were launched high into the air. The balloons were equipped with a timing mechanism, which by means of wind speed and wind direction, could determine where and when to release the bombs. The balloons successfully dropped their cargo and the cargo exploded on the city of Venice. Two days after this, Venice surrendered.
1907
Jacques
and
Louis Bréguet
The very first quadcopter was created by inventors (and brothers) Jacques and Louis Bréguet. Good start, but it was far from resembling the quadcopters we know today. For example, you couldn't pilot it and you needed 4 men to get it into the air. On its first flight, it didn't even get 1 meter high. Yet the shape of the quadcopter emerged then that we still use today.
1917
The Kettering Bug
Technology in unmanned aviation continued to advance during World War I. In 1917, America declared war on Germany. The first drone program was started by the U.S. government. From this came the "Kettering Bug"; a drone made of wood with a range of 120 kilometers. The aircraft weighed 270 pounds and carried a 135-pound bomb. The engine that powered the Bug was a gasoline engine from Ford. The first drone did not get beyond the testing phase. Before the drone could be put into development, World War I was over.
1941
The V-1 Rocket
World War II further affected development. The Nazis developed the V-1 and the V-2. The V-1 was the world's first unmanned jet aircraft. The V-1 used wings instead of rocket motor propulsion. This was an unmanned aircraft, or drone. The V-2 did not have wings, so was basically a rocket. The Allies were the first in the world (1941) to mount a camera on a drone. In 1942, this drone carried out a successful attack from a distance of more than 20 kilometers. A large-scale drone program was abandoned. This was because it was thought that defenses against drones would be developed faster by Nazi Germany than the drone itself.
1955-1975
The Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), America made extensive use of drones. These drones were not equipped with weapons, but served only to take reconnaissance images. The Vietnam area proved to be a laboratory for America to test advanced American warfare techniques. This period is also considered the beginning of the electronic battlefield.
2001-2010
Not just
military's drones
2001: After 9/11, the CIA in America began using armed drones against the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the year 2000, the Predator drone was the first to be deployed by the U.S. military. The very first casualty inflicted by the drone occurred in February 2002. A Predator drone was used to take out a suspicious person. They thought this was Osama bin Laden. This ultimately turned out not to be him. It was an innocent victim named Daraz Khan. From this also arose concerns about drones in war. For example, there were protests against military drones. They would cause too many innocent casualties.
2006: The FAA in America began to see that non-military drones could also be very useful to society. This development began in 2006. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, American emergency services had the greatest difficulty finding victims. They then began using drones. This also allowed companies to use drones for commercial purposes. Soon, many drone permits were applied for. The government also began using more and more drones. For example, they used drones to locate injured people, monitor borders and locate fires.
2010: the French company Parrot released the Parrot AR drone. This was the very first Ready-to-Fly drone that you could control with WiFi and a smartphone. Ready-To-Fly means that you can fly the drone immediately after taking it out of the box. So you don't have to assemble anything yourself. The drone became a huge success. Later, the company released the Parrot AR 2.0. A better version of its predecessor. This made it a lot easier to control. Here you can see the Parrot AR.
Source: drone-zaak.nl and wikipedia