Rightly or wrongly as far as Aerial Reconnaissance was concerned, the RAF teaching in the 70's was that an RPV was subject to external control in flight, whilst a drone was autonomous .
(Thinking back to the Cl-89 "Midge" drone a.k.a USD 501 IIRC)
But certainly the term was used for remotely controlled aerial targets and target towers from at least the late 30's. ( Queen Bee , Queen Wasp et al.)
Then there was the "Larynx....... and well before that the "Aerial Target" which was a British V1 predecessor .
"NUUURSE!, the screens!......"
Last edited by Haraka; 19th Oct 2014 at 12:05.