Abstract
Although there are many who believe that UAVs are a recent invention going back at most two or three decades, unmanned flight has a rich history that goes back all the way to ancient times. Of course, the first systems that can qualify with the modern definition of UAVs are quite recent and mainly involve the reconnaissance drones developed and deployed during the cold war. Today, UAV systems have evolved and expanded into widely different designs like quadrotors, ducted fan, and blimps in addition to the classic fixed-wing and helicopter approaches. They have also acquired new roles beyond reconnaissance and have also found applications beyond the military domain, for example, in weather monitoring or infrastructure inspection. This chapter provides a short overview of this history.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
C. Gellius, Attic nights. Book 10 (Trans. by Rolfe, J. C.) (1927), http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/10*.html
D. Guedj, Le Theoreme du Perroquet (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1998)
Hiller Aviation Museum, History of helicopters (2004). Online, http://www.hiller.org/
National Museum of the USAF, Radioplane/northrop MQM-57 falconer factsheet (2009), http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=7684. Retrieved Oct 2009
L. Newcome, Unmanned Aviation: A Brief History of UAV’s (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, 2004)
US Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense, Unmanned aircraft systems roadmap 2005–2030. Report (2005)
US Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense, Unmanned systems roadmap 2007–2032. Report (2007)
K.P. Valavanis, G.J. Vachtsevanos, P.J. Antsaklis, Technology and autonomous mechanisms in the Mediterranean: from ancient Greece to Byzantium, in Proceedings of the European Control Conference (ECC2007), Kos, 2007, pp. 263–270
W. Wagner, Lightning Bugs and Other Reconnaissance Drones (Aero Publishers, Fallbrook, 1982)
D. Yinke, Ancient Chinese Inventions (China Intercontinental Press, Beijing, 2005)
S.J. Zaloga, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare 1917–2007. No. 144 in New Vanguard (Osprey, Oxford/New York, 2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dalamagkidis, K. (2015). Aviation History and Unmanned Flight. In: Valavanis, K., Vachtsevanos, G. (eds) Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9707-1_93
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9707-1_93
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9706-4
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9707-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering