Posted on 06/02/2013 6:47:15 AM PDT by Altariel
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Unmanned aircraft vehicles. Remotely piloted vehicles. Unmanned aerial systems.
The future of aviation is set to include vehicles without a human pilot on board, and people in the industry have one request about their aircraft.
Please don’t call them “drones.”
The oft-used term is splashed on headlines in print, on TV and on the Internet, but those who work closely with the technology said the word carries negative connotations which damage the industry’s reputation.
“Don’t call them ‘drones,’” UND unmanned aircraft systems student Andrew Regenhard said Friday at the Unmanned Aircraft Action Summit in the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. “When I think of drones, I think of the Terminator, where killer drones take over the world and have a mind of their own.”
Historically, drones were aircraft that were used for target practice for air and ground forces, UND professor Benjamin Trapnell said. Now, the same term has been used to describe the high-tech Predator aircraft used by the military to remotely strike enemy troops overseas.
“It has taken on a persona that is dark,” he said. “People see that and associate all unmanned aircraft with those that can kill.”
“If anybody shot at my helicopter, I would be pretty mad,” Regenhard added, highlighting that today’s unmanned aircraft can perform a variety of tasks beyond harming people.
Despite being a broadly used and accepted term by those who produce and pilot them, the Air Force has shied away from using the term “unmanned” to describe their vehicles.
“‘Unmanned’ implies no people,” Lt. Col. Scott Coon, chief of NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Operations. “It implies a dumb vehicle. If there was a political correctness in UAS, ‘unmanned’ would not be correct.”
Trapnell said while there are no people in the vehicles themselves, the human side of remotely piloted aircraft is essential.
“This is an unmanned aircraft vehicle,” he said, gesturing toward Regenhard’s six-rotor remotely piloted helicopter on display at the summit. He then moved Regenhard next to his helicopter, laptop with mapping software and helicopter controller. “Now this is an unmanned aircraft system.”
“They can be programmed for one thing or another, but someone has to program it,” Regenhard said. “While there isn’t a person in the aircraft, there is a person controlling it.”
UWV`s are also hot
[Unwomaned Arial vehicle]
Benji needs to study some military history. Drones have been used for EW, SIGINT, and photorecon, going back decades. Unmanned and uncontrolled from the ground.
One of the Kennedy boys was killed in a B-17 that was to be used as an explosive drone during WWII.
/johnny
There are plans to move unmanned/remote piloted/whatever into commercial aviation. The FAA/commercial airlines want to start with cargo flights then move into passenger service... I think I’m gonna do a lot a walking.. :)
But it's not Obama. Probably one or two guys in Cincinnati.
Golly gee. I wonder where all that violence and negative 'connotations' came from then, huh?
To all the 'operators' and builders and owners out there, what is your primary business? I'll bet it sure as hell isn't/hasn't been say, flying one of them marvels of technology over say, Moore OK just after the hit there. Maybe carrying infrared and radar imaging systems, cell phone detectors, all that - huh? The truth is that this is what these things should be designed and used for: disaster intel, geolocation of cellphones, mapping warm bodies, etc. BUT they are used for nearly anything but even if the capabilities are similar. And, even the universities are getting their $$ to propose, design and prototype them. The warm bodies they find or the cell phones they find are geolocated, and then promptly whacked with the on board rocket, etc..... So, guys, get a thicker skin and STFU unless you're ready to change your act.
Well, if the description fits...
Doubleplusgood Newspeak.
I don’t give a Flying Fed.
People are already afraid to talk about them in less than reverent tones. May Viking Kitties and their Friends zot them out of the sky. May each of us stand for each other’s few remaining freedoms.
“Please don’t call them “drones.””
Right, because Hussein’s been called to task for his use of drones to kill Americans.
If we don’t call them drones, then after the next DWTS “episode”, people won’t remember anything bad about their god Hussein and drones.
Modern UAV's such as the General Atomics Predator and the Northrup Grumman Global Hawk are externally controlled, and that makes them different than drones.
Perhaps we can call them 'Negro's' that is a word that was invented for non negative connotation's that is not being used now.
Politically Correct foolishness. Despite what some mindless 'drone' in the government thinks, calling something a new name does not make sentient beings forget what it really is.
Bingo.
It would appear that The Politically Correct, anxious to avoid alerting more Americans to the problem, have spun a politically correct term for “drones”.
Now, we on Free Republic will know to be vigilant.
Skynet?
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