Why is a flying drone called a drone?

The term drone has been used since the early days of aviation and has been applied to target aircraft that fly at a distance and that are used to practice firing the guns of a battleship, such as the Fairey Queen of the 1920s and the de Havilland Queen Bee of the 1930s. Years later, during the First and Second World Wars, engineers and companies built many unmanned vehicles. Archibald Low developed a radio guidance system for military drones without a pilot; however, they were not autonomous because they had to be launched mechanically. The army built a drone, an aerial torpedo, with a circuit to turn off the engine, but they fell to Earth during the flight.

The British produced many radio-controlled aircraft for use for training purposes. At that time, the term “drone” began to be used. Drone is a broad term that can refer to any unmanned aircraft. However, it usually refers to a multirotor.

A multirotor has three or more propellers that can be used to float or fly in any direction. The most common type is a quadcopter, which has four propellers (as shown below). Drones, sometimes referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), carry out tasks that range from the most mundane to the most dangerous. There are many parts involved behind the scenes to facilitate the smooth operation of drones, so it's important to familiarize yourself with the remote or unmanned technology that makes up a drone system.

Drones are commonly referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), while the entire system that allows a drone to operate is a UAS (unmanned aerial system). The exam consists of 60 multiple-choice questions, with topics such as the regulation of unmanned aerial system (UAS) qualification privileges, flight limitations and operation, the effects of weather on UAS performance, emergency procedures, airport regulations, decision-making, maintenance, and more. The word drone was first used for an unmanned aerial vehicle in 1946, but advances in drone technology in recent years have made the term much more common.