Quote:
(which is an incorrect term as this applies to target aircraft - from one of the very first, the De Havilland Queen Bee)
Not according to the dictionary, B-word:
Quote:
drone n
1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology) a male bee in a colony of social bees, whose sole function is to mate with the queen
2. Brit a person who lives off the work of others
3. (Engineering / Aeronautics) a pilotless radio-controlled aircraft
[Old English drān; related to Old High German treno drone, Gothic drunjus noise, Greek tenthrēnē wasp]
dronish adj
I suspect that the press has got fed up with the Spams and the Rental Aeromodel Farce inventing new abbreviations and acronyms for pilotless aircraft every few weeks - so they've settled on the simpler term drone.
I think you just reinforced his point BEagle. The aircraft aren't pilotless. This emphasises the whole problem, of course - people who have no idea of what UAVs do or how they are operated are pushing their uninformed opinions. How about looking at what pilots of all aircraft actually do, see what skillsets are required then define them that way? Of course the problem with that is, the passed over tristar types might be extremely disappointed to see themselves much further down the list than UAV operators.
And while I'm on a rant the term UAS is still erroneously used even by many who should know better. The Air Vehicle is unmanned (and unwomanned) but the System most certainly is not - at least for Reaper. Every UAV is different.
Merry Xmas