Unleash Your UAV Knowledge with Our Comprehensive Quiz!

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board, developed for military missions and now used in many non-military applications, including aerial photography, precision agriculture, forest fire monitoring, river monitoring, environmental monitoring, policing and surveillance, infrastructure inspections, smuggling, product deliveries, entertainment, and drone racing. Many terms are used for aircraft which fly without any persons on board, but the most common are drone and UAV. UAVs are classified by design configuration, range and endurance, size, weight, degree of autonomy, and altitude. The first recorded use of an unmanned aerial vehicle for warfighting occurred in July 1849, with a balloon carrier in the first offensive use of air power in naval aviation. The earliest attempt at a powered UAV was A. M. Low's "Aerial Target" in 1916. After World War II, development continued in vehicles such as the American JB-4, while companies like Beechcraft offered their Model 1001 for the U.S. Navy in 1955. With the maturing and miniaturization of applicable technologies in the 1980s and 1990s, interest in UAVs grew within the higher echelons of the U.S. military, and many UAVs saw service in the 1991 Gulf War. By 2013, at least 50 countries used UAVs, and China, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, and others designed and built their own varieties. The use of drones has continued to increase, and in 2020 a Kargu 2 drone hunted down and attacked a human target in Libya. Superior drone technology played a role in Azerbaijan's successes in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.Overview of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

• UAVs are used for various purposes, including military operations, scientific research, and civilian applications such as package delivery.

• The Dragonfly spacecraft is a UAV being developed for scientific research, aiming to explore Saturn's moon Titan, and is set to launch in 2027.

• Small UAVs can be designed with less sturdy materials and use less powerful propulsion technologies, such as small electric motors and batteries.

• UAVs can be designed in different configurations than manned aircraft, optimized for their payloads and ground equipment rather than human comfort.

• UAV propulsion technologies include traditional internal combustion and jet engines, electric power, and hydrogen fuel cells.

• UAVs can be equipped with various sensors, including position and movement sensors, external sensors, and monitoring devices like cameras and LiDAR.

• UAVs use a radio for control and data exchange, employing broadband links to carry all types of data.

• UAV autonomy varies widely, with some UAVs programmed for specific autonomous operations like airborne refueling or ground-based battery switching.

• UAV endurance is not constrained by the physiological capabilities of a human pilot, and various technologies have been developed to extend the flight time of UAVs, including solar power and hydrogen fuel cells.

• Reliability improvements target all aspects of UAV systems, using resilience engineering and fault tolerance techniques.

• Military UAVs are used by more than 100 countries, with the US holding over 60% military-market share in 2017.

• UAVs are also used for intelligence and reconnaissance missions, with micro UAV flapping-wing ornithopters providing inherent stealth.Overview of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

• UAVs have potential for covert surveillance and can be difficult to bring down.

• UAVs are used for reconnaissance, attack, demining, and target practice.

• Chinese companies dominate the civilian drone market, with DJI accounting for 74% of the market share in 2018.

• UAVs are used for aerial photography, environmental monitoring, agriculture, forestry, and wildlife surveying.

• Police use UAVs for search and rescue and traffic monitoring.

• UAVs can threaten airspace security through collisions or interfering with other aircraft, prompting shutdowns of commercial flights.

• UAVs can be used to drop contraband into prisons, hijacked, or jammed in flight, leading to security vulnerabilities.

• The malicious use of UAVs has led to the development of counter unmanned air system (C-UAS) technologies.

• Regulatory bodies across the world are developing unmanned aircraft system traffic management solutions to better integrate UAVs into airspace.

• The implementation of Class Identification Label helps to increase confidence in drone technology and encourages wider adoption across industries.

• The export of UAVs or technology capable of carrying a 500 kg payload at least 300 km is restricted in many countries by the Missile Technology Control Regime.