High-Flying Facts About Drones

1 UNMANNED AERIAL vehicles may seem like recent technology, but the earliest version took flight back in 1849, during the First Italian War of Independence.

- Marc Saltzman

An Austrian artillery lieutenant, Franz von Uchatius, used pilotless balloons packed with explosives to attack Venice. He was mostly unsuccessful; some balloons even blew back to Austria.

2 ABRAHAM KAREM (also known as The Dronefather), built the first modern drone in the 1970s. He went on to design the MQ-1 Predator drone for the United States military, which fired its first missile over Afghanistan in October 2001. Today, drones are being used in the Russia-Ukraine war for surveillance and recon. Combat drones have struck both Moscow and Kyiv, but drones have also dropped food and supplies to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.

3 MILITARY DRONES resemble small airplanes and can cost more than 15 million apiece, but mini versions sometimes called quadcopters) look more like tiny helicopters and are available for anyone to buy for as little as 40. Most are remotely operated via either a controller or a smartphone app, but some models can fly autonomously thanks to GPS, sensors and cameras that help them avoid obstacles.