{"id":15,"date":"2014-08-26T09:16:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T08:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamiebrightmore.com\/?p=15"},"modified":"2015-06-27T13:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T12:32:59","slug":"multi-rotor-drones-whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamiebrightmore.com\/aerial-photography\/multi-rotor-drones-whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-rotor Drones, What’s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"
A drone<\/em> in the original sense of the word is a male Bee, although there is a prevalent association with autonomous military aircraft often carrying payloads with deadly potential.<\/p>\n Military drones largely gained the public\u2019s attention during various military operations in the 1990s. They frequently\u00a0have threatening sounding names, such as Reaper, Predator, etc.<\/p>\n However, increasing media attention surrounding multi-rotor devices may be changing the perception of the term drone<\/em>.<\/p>\n This past couple of years has seen a wave of new devices emerging from the manufacturers of multi-rotor drones, as well as some forward thinking\u00a0Kickstarter campaigns1<\/sup>. Henceforth,\u00a0a noticeable rise in public awareness of consumer grade multi-rotor drones, aka; Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA),\u00a0Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS).<\/p>\n Let\u2019s face it, the range of acronyms are a confusing mouthful which could also be argued \u2013 are still quite military sounding in nature. Is it any wonder the media has latched on to the now common term drone<\/i>?\u00a0A prime example of the term\u2019s proliferation is the recent rise of \u2018Dronies\u2019, selfie style pictures taken from multi-rotor drones \u2013 see\u00a0dronestagr.am<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n For love or hate, it looks like the term drone<\/i>\u00a0as a catchall to describe consumer multi-rotor aircraft, or RPA, RPAS, UAS, UAV\u2019s, is here to stay \u2013 but is that such a bad thing?<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve operated a small remotely piloted multi-rotor, or been near to one, you\u2019ll attest to the likening sound of a swarm of angry bees hovering nearby. The name is very fitting in this respect and more identifiable than a bunch of nondescript letters, however will the name still continue to conjure up the destructive nature of\u00a0the larger military cousins?<\/p>\n There are numerous other ways to term multi-rotor drones. Multirotors<\/em>\u00a0seems to be most prevalent regarding context\u00a0which isn’t weighted towards media sensationalism. Per\u00adson\u00adally, I\u2019m a fan drop\u00adping the hypen from certain words, I\u2019ve started doing this with\u00a0Timelapse<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n With that said, Mul\u00adti\u00adcopters<\/em> is a really nice fit in my opin\u00adion and seems to be get\u00adting used a lot more. It\u2019s a tad more descript\u00adive than Mul\u00adtiro\u00adtor<\/em> which could eas\u00adily be describ\u00ading other devices, such as a tech\u00adnic\u00adally adept lawn\u00admower or blender : )<\/p>\n The historical emergence of the term drone is an interesting story. In 1935 a radio-controlled version of Tiger Moth\u00a0biplane was built in Great Britain to operate as a remote target for anti-aircraft gunnery practice. It was called the DH.82<\/span> Queen Bee.<\/p>\n It is believed this is where the term drone<\/em> was first coined2<\/sup>, perhaps from a colloquial mixing of craft\u2019s name and the persistent droning sound made by the aircraft.\u00a0It\u2019s not hard to imagine the how the nickname came to pass.<\/p>\n Interestingly, there have been incidents where swarms of bees go after and seem to attack multi-rotor drones! I\u2019m guessing this has to be to do with the sound the aircraft makes, with the bees feeling threatened by what they regard as a rival group.<\/p>\n For your enter\u00adtain\u00adment, check these out, some even man\u00adage to cause the down\u00adfall of a few:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/search<\/a><\/p>\n News outlets and the internet in general have really sealed the deal for the term drone<\/i>. Having gone through the RPQ-s<\/a><\/span> process to enable me to operate as a com\u00admer\u00adcial pilot here in the UK has steered me to refer to multi-rotor devices as RPA \/\u00a0RPAS especially while writing doc\u00adu\u00adment\u00ada\u00adtion. ‘RPAS’ is the term used by many official aviation authorities, including the International Civil Aviation Organisation \u2013\u00a0ICAO<\/a>. While this seems to be the preferred term to encompass the wide range of devices out there, it can still refer to military devices.<\/p>\n I always tend to use Quad\u00adcopter<\/i> to describe my current setup in conversation \u2014 tech\u00adnic\u00adally that\u2019s what it is after all and serves as the most descriptive term. But as I mentioned earlier, Multicopter<\/em> is a much nicer overall catchall than Drones<\/em>.<\/p>\n What do you think about the naming of multi-rotor drones?<\/p>\n\n
Multi-rotor ‘Drones’<\/h2>\n
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Historical name<\/h2>\n
Attack of the Drones<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
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