Early unmanned aerial vehicle

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – later known simply as drones – were at first considered to be so unlikely that people catching sight of them often mistook them for spaceships from alien planets. However, drones soon became ubiquitous, varying hugely in size and in purpose. They were commonly employed for clandestine surveillance (of military targets and of the civilian population and its assets). Drones also became important in agriculture and a critical and very large part of Oil Age warfare, not least for the targeted assassination of enemy personnel, known somewhat euphemistically as ‘taking someone out’. However, they nevertheless enjoyed widespread domestic use too – for example, as a child’s or adult’s plaything, for the delivery of shopping and, later, as a means of micro-transport enabling the rapid (if not always safe) return of babies and children to home from nurseries and schools.