Aircrafttotal Encyclopedia

UAV Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles — drones — fly by remote control or on their own: from the Queen Bee target drone of 1935 to the Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk and today's loyal wingmen.

27drones
3groups
1935–2022first flight
12countries

About drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — commonly known as drones — are aircraft without a pilot on board. They are flown by remote control from the ground or fly on their own with a programmed route. Armed drones are called UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles); large drones that can stay in the air for a whole day are called MALE (medium altitude, long endurance) or HALE (high altitude, long endurance) drones.

Radio-controlled target aircraft were already flown in the 1930s: the de Havilland Queen Bee gave drones their name. The jet-powered Ryan Firebee followed in the 1950s and flew reconnaissance missions over Vietnam. Since the General Atomics Predator of the 1990s drones are used for reconnaissance, combat, air refuelling and as loyal wingmen that fly together with fighter aircraft.

  1. 1935
    de Havilland Queen BeeThe aircraft that gave drones their namede Havilland · United Kingdom
  2. 1951
    Ryan FirebeeOne of the most widely used target dronesRyan Aeronautical · United States
  3. 1994
    General Atomics MQ-1 PredatorThe drone that made armed UAVs famousGeneral Atomics · United States
  4. 1994
    IAI HeronIsrael Aerospace Industries · Israel
  5. 1998
    Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global HawkNorthrop Grumman · United States
  6. 2000
    Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire ScoutNorthrop Grumman · United States
  7. 2001
    General Atomics MQ-9 ReaperGeneral Atomics · United States
  8. 2007
    Lockheed Martin RQ-170 SentinelLockheed Skunk Works · United States
  9. 2007
    CAIG Wing LoongChengdu Aircraft · China
  10. 2009
    General Atomics AvengerGeneral Atomics · United States
  11. 2009
    BAE Systems MantisBAE Systems · United Kingdom
  12. 2009
    Elbit Hermes 900Elbit Systems · Israel
  13. 2009
    Guizhou WZ-7 Soaring DragonGuizhou Aviation · China
  14. 2011
    Northrop Grumman X-47BThe first drone to take off from and land on an aircraft carrierNorthrop Grumman · United States
  15. 2012
    Dassault nEUROnDassault Aviation · France (Europe)
  16. 2013
    BAE Systems TaranisBAE Systems · United Kingdom
  17. 2013
    Piaggio P.1HH HammerHeadPiaggio Aerospace · Italy
  18. 2013
    Hongdu GJ-11 Sharp SwordHongdu Aviation · China
  19. 2014
    Baykar Bayraktar TB2Baykar · Turkey
  20. 2019
    Kratos XQ-58 ValkyrieKratos Defense · United States
  21. 2019
    Boeing MQ-25 StingrayThe first drone to refuel another aircraft in flightBoeing · United States
  22. 2019
    Baykar Bayraktar AkıncıBaykar · Turkey
  23. 2019
    Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-BSukhoi · Russia
  24. 2021
    Boeing MQ-28 Ghost BatBoeing Australia · Australia
  25. 2022
    Baykar Bayraktar KızılelmaBaykar · Turkey
  26. —
    Airbus EurodroneAirbus / Leonardo / Dassault · Germany / France / Italy / Spain
  27. —
    AVIC Baidi B-TypeAVIC · China