September 24, 2017
When you first get into drone photography, you will find out that it is an activity full of jargon and unfamiliar terms. Even drones themselves have several names. They can be referred to as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). Navigating these terms can be confusing at first, but in a short amount of time, this lingo will cease to perplex you. Technical Terms for Drones The name ‘drone’ originated when the British Navy had an unmanned aircraft they called Queen Bee. When the U.S. Navy decided to have their own unmanned aircraft, they decided to name them after male bees, hence the term “drone”. The term‘drone’is still used to refer to an unmanned military aircraft.Nowadays, the term, ‘drone’,is also used to refer to any amateur or commercial level unmanned aircraft. A drone may be called an unmanned aircraft system or UAS for short. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses this term. The FAA defines UAS by the operator on the ground. Any plane where the human controller is not onboard is a UAS. From that term, we have sUAS, which refers to a small-unmanned aircraft system. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) uses the […]