1. DRONES
WHO INVENTED DRONES
WHY GOOGLE WANTs THEM
An MQ-9 Reaper in its lair at Balad, Iraq, 2008. A bigger,
badder Predator, the MQ-9 has a turboprop engine and Y-
shaped tail and can carry almost 4,000 pounds of ordnance.
(USAF)
2. Karem Aircraft Inc. in Lake Forest, California
Before he designed the world’s most feared drone, Abraham Karem
was just trying to get a robot to stay in the air.
The Man Who Invented the Predator
3. 1910s
Sperry Aerial Torpedo (USA) Cooper and Sperry used their
technological breakthrough to convert a U.S. Navy Curtiss N-9
trainer aircraft into the first radio-controlled UAV. The Sperry
Aerial Torpedo flew 50 miles carrying a 300-pound bomb in
several test flights, but it never saw combat.
4. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Navy and DARPA provided funding for flight tests of
Boeing’s extraordinary Condor UAV, which, with a 200-foot wingspan, reached
an altitude of 67,028 feet and was considered briefly by the Air Force as a
replacement for the SR-71 Blackbird. (Boeing)
5. Hanging from the museum's gallery ceiling is the super-secret
spyplane known as the Boeing "Condor."
The Condor is one of the largest wing-span aircraft hanging in
any aviation museum. It is so large, in fact, that it is often
overlooked by visitors.
HILLER AVIATION MUSEUM
SAN CARLOS, CA
6. The Lockheed Aquila began development as a target designator for the Army in
the 1970s. It was to have been launched by catapult from a five-ton truck, but
poor management decisions, including the piling on of requirements by
potential users, killed the program. (Reuters / Mike Theirler)
7. At Joint Base Balad, Iraq, a crew chief checks his Predator’s
targeting system: TV cameras, infrared sensor, and laser
designator. (USAF / Staff Sgt Cohen Young
8. With a laser to designate targets, the Predator can either
strike or support heftier attackers like the AV-8B Harrier,
here training in Nevada. (USAF / Senior Airman Larry E.
Reid Jr.)
9. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TECHNOLOGY
Google to Buy Titan Aerospace as Web Giants Battle for Air Superiority
Internet Giant to Acquire Startup That Was Courted by Facebook
By ALISTAIR BARR and REED ALBERGOTTI
Updated April 14, 2014 7:26 p.m. ET
10. What is Project Loon?
Many of us think of the Internet as a global community. But two-thirds
of the world’s population does not yet have Internet access. Project
Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed
to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and
bring people back online after disasters.
11. An artist rendering of the Solera 50, the smaller of two Titan
Aerospace drones that -- with a wingspan of 164 feet -- will be
slightly larger than a Boeing 767.
12. The FAA estimates that 10,000 commercial drones will take to the
skies by 2020 after, with $94 billion spent over the course of 10
years. The US Congress has asked the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) to grant drones access to domestic airspace
by 2015.
13. Project Loon began in June 2013 with an experimental pilot in New Zealand,
where a small group of Project Loon pioneers tested Loon technology. The
results of the pilot test have been used to improve the technology, and
continued refinements are now being tested in an ongoing series of research
flights in California’s Central Valley.
14.
15. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Psalm 34:15
