MAKE Terry Kilby - 1;Introduction; Some Definitions

1/Introduction
Some Definitions
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware
that the word drone is frequently in the news. The many head-
lines about drones have used the term to describe a wide range
of aircraft—from small remotely piloted toys, to autonomous fly-
ing
robots, to full-scale weaponized military surveillance mod-
els. This is mainly because dierent sources have had dierent
definitions of the word drone. Where exactly is the line drawn, or
what makes a drone a drone? Let’s start with a basic definition.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of drone is:
an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote
control or onboard computers
This definition presents a very broad sense of the word, which
contributes to the overgeneralizations and misinformation we
see when the media reports on a particular type of unmanned
aircraft. Let’s be more specific. Terry says he draws the line
between radio-controlled (RC) aircraft and drones at the intro-
duction of GPS and autopilots. When an aircraft has the ability
to pilot itself, even if it’s just to hold a steady position, that in his
eyes is a drone. Throughout this book, we’ll use the following
conventions:
Drone
Unmanned aerial vehicle controlled autonomously using
GPS
Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)
Model aircraft flown by a pilot on the ground using a radio
transmitter or other computer equipment
UAV
Aircraft that can be flown remotely by a pilot or controlled
autonomously using computer software and GPS
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