The Evolution of Drones: From Military Origins

In case you didn't know it yet, we are living in the drone age. And as drones are used for good purposes, so they will be used for bad.

Shift happens. Let's explore the evolution of drones.

But how did we get here? And when did it start?

The answers are unexpected. Read on and find out!

Psst. In a rush? Click here or scroll down to the bottom of the page for a fast fix infographic...

First Ever Drone Attack in 1849

In the summer of 1849 (yes, you read correct - that's not a typo), the Austrian Field Marshall, Radetzky, launched an attack on the besieged city of Venice.  He'd heard about a new invention; Luftballons mit Bomben zu schleudern, (balloons with hurling bombs - for those of us who don't speak German). And so he wrote a letter to the Imperial War Department in Vienna:

"Since this invention might be of use in the besieged siege of Venice, from whose approach we are still 5,000 paces away, and where projectiles are not sufficient, I offer the most devoted request to the high Ministry of War, with the greatest possible speed to provide all the means necessary to bring this invention to fruition in Venice, if it really proved itself. Radetzky."

Franz Uchatius, the inventor of the unmanned balloon bombs, had conducted successful trials in Vienna, and so on July 2nd 1849, the first ever unmanned air vehicle attack took place. 

The bombardment from the unmanned balloons was accomplished by hanging the bombs underneath the baskets and letting the suspension cords pass through a block of rocket propellant to which a slow-burning fuse led. Trained bombardiers lit the fuse before the balloon was raised.

The campaign wasn't super successful due to unfavourable winds. However, it was said that the bombs did have a psychological effect.

Venice surrendered exactly one month later. 

Tesla Invents the Radio Controlled Vehicle

The next significant development in the evolution of drones came from Nikola Tesla in 1898. Surprisingly enough, this is when he invented the first radio-controlled unmanned vehicle. Radio itself wasn't even officially patented (by himself) until 1900!

He presented his r/c boat to the public for the first time at the Electrical Exhibition held at Madison Square Garden. He told the crowd that "the boat is equipped with a borrowed mind". The crowd was astonished when they saw the boat moving by itself, and they couldn't find a rational explanation. They speculated it was magic, telepathy or even that there was a trained monkey hidden inside. 

Showing his humorous side he decided to fool the audience and let them shout out commands to the boat, all while controlling the boat himself. He even encouraged the crowd to ask the boat questions, with one audience member asking "What's the cube root of 64?". The boat answered by flashing its lights four times. The audience didn't know whether to laugh or run. Would you?

The Kettering Bug Aerial Torpedo

In 1917 Charles Kettering invented the unmanned Kettering Aerial Torpedo, which he nicknamed the "Bug."

The Bug was launched from a wheeled dolly that ran down a portable track, and it had pre-set pneumatic and electrical controls to stabilise and guide it towards a target. After a predetermined time delay, the engine would automatically shut off, and the wings would be released. The Bug's 80kg of explosives detonated on impact. 

The Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. (yes that's the Wright brothers Wright) built fewer than 50 Kettering Bugs before WW1 ended, and the Bug never saw combat. It was considered too risky to fly over Allied troops.

The Origin of the Word 'Drone'

The Queen Bee, the first returnable and reusable UAV, was designed in Britain for use as an aerial target during training missions.

It was a pilotless derivative of the Tiger Moth (you can see from the photo there's no room for a pilot), and anti-aircraft gunners in the Royal Navy would practice shooting them down. The wooden biplanes first flew in 1935 and had either wheels or floats so they could be used on land and sea.

It's believed that the term 'drone' started to be used at this time, inspired by the name of the new unmanned air vehicle. This was a key moment in the evolution of drones.

The Queen Bee was radio-controlled and could fly as high as 17,000 feet and had a maximum range of 300 miles flying at over 100 mph. Queen Bees served as target drones in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy for a further 12 years before they were retired in 1947. 

The V-1 Flying Bomb

The V here stands for Vergeltungswaffe, or Weapon of Vengeance. Also known as the buzz bomb or doodlebug due to the buzzing noise created by the pulsejet engine pulsing 50 times per second.

It was developed in 1939 by the Nazi German Luftwaffe and was specifically designed for terror bombing London and creating civilian casualties. The first V-1 attack was launched on June 13th 1944. Almost 10,000 V-1s were fired at south-east England in total, peaking at over 100 per day. 

It had a simple gyrocompass based autopilot and had a range of 250km. It flew at 650km/h at an altitude of 600 to 900m. Each V-1 had an odometer on-board which would count down to zero determining how far the drone would fly. It was possible to launch the V-1 with its ramp pointing in just the approximate direction, with the autopilot controlling the flight.

It took 15 minutes for the V-1s to reach London from their launch site in Calais. The 1000kg warheads were devastatingly effective; 22,000 casualties and more than 6,000 fatalities.

At first, the anti-aircraft batteries had no chance of catching the fast-moving missiles. But, radar controlled anti-aircraft batteries and proximity-fuse shells soon became available, and after a few months, three-quarters of all V-1s launched at Britain were being shot down with flak (hurrah for radar!).

The V-2 Rocket

We can't mention the V-1 without mentioning it's follow up, the V-2. While the V-1 was powered by a jet engine running on standard petrol, the V-2 was a true rocket with a liquid-propellant rocket engine. And while most V-2s relied on an accelerometer to cut the engine at a predetermined velocity, 20% of V-2s were radio controlled for both azimuth (direction) and engine cut-off, for targeting.

With over 3,000 V-2s launched at Allied targets, they were responsible for an estimated 9,000 deaths. And as Germany collapsed, the US, UK and the Soviet Union raced to capture the technology, laying the foundation down for rocket and missile development in those countries. It was also the first man-made object to enter into space by crossing the Karman line in 1944.

The First Counter-Drone... Drone

In 1944 the US Navy's Special Air Unit One converted PB4Y-1 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses to fly by remote control into V-1 and V-2 launch sites while loaded to capacity with explosives. The aircraft would take off with a two-man crew who would then bail out after reaching the predetermined altitude and azimuth.

Once unmanned, the aircraft were taken over via radio control by a team on the ground. Operation Aphrodite, as code-named by the Allies, was largely unsuccessful and resulted in several crew deaths before and during bail-out. One notable pilot death was that of Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. If the name sounds familiar, that's because his little brother went on to become President of the United States.

In 1946 B-17s were again transformed for unmanned use. The B-17 drones were flown into the radioactive clouds during Operation Crossroads nuclear testing.

This time though, and in a world-first; takeoff, flight and landing were all achieved entirely unmanned. That's pretty impressive for 1946!

The B-17 drones were controlled at take-off and landing from a transmitter on a jeep and during the flight from another manned B-17.

Towards the end of the war, there were essentially three different development paths taken from these early drones.

1. Munitions (rockets and missiles)
2. Target Aircraft
3. Surveillance Aircraft

We're going to concentrate on the target and surveillance aircraft from this point on as that's the development line that leads us to the modern-day drone threat.

Want to read on? We explore more about the evolution of drones in Part 2.

Click here for 'Evolution of the Drone Threat: Part 2'.