A brief history of UAV development

In the 1940s, unmanned aerial vehicles were used to train anti-aircraft gunners in World War II.

1945, after the second world war, redundant or retired aircraft were converted into special research or target aircraft, which became a precedent for the use trend of modern drones. With the development of electronic technology, UAV has begun to show its flexibility and importance in reconnaissance tasks.

During the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia from 1955 to 1974, drones were frequently used to perform military tasks.

In 1982, Israel Aviation Industry Corporation (IAI) launched a military mission with drones as other roles. During the peace operation in Galilee (Lebanon War), the "Scout" UAV system played an important role in the service of the Israeli Army and the Israeli Air Force. The IDF mainly uses drones for reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, tracking and communication.

In the desert storm campaign of 199 1, the U.S. military once launched a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) specially designed to deceive the radar system as bait, and this bait has also become the object of emulation by other countries.

1in March 1996, NASA developed two testing machines: the X-36 experimental tailless unmanned combat aircraft. The captain is 5.7 meters long and weighs 88 kilograms, which is equivalent to 28% of the size of an ordinary fighter. The discrete aileron and steering thrust systems used in this aircraft are more flexible than traditional fighters. The horizontal and vertical tails not only reduce the weight and tension, but also reduce the radar reflection cross section. The ideal task that unmanned combat aircraft will perform is to suppress enemy air defense, intercept, combat loss assessment, theater missile defense and ultra-high altitude attack, which is especially suitable for performing tasks in politically sensitive areas.

Before the end of the 20th century, they were just smaller than full-size remote-controlled aircraft. The U.S. military is increasingly interested in such aircraft because they provide low-cost and highly flexible combat machines that can be used without the risk of crew death.

In the 1990s, after the Gulf War, UAVs began to develop rapidly and were widely used. The U.S. military purchased and manufactured the Pioneer UAV as a reliable system in the Second and Third Gulf Wars.

After the 1990s, western countries fully realized the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in the war and competed to apply high technology to the research and development of unmanned aerial vehicles: new wings and light materials greatly increased the endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles; Adopt advanced signal processing and communication technology to improve the image transmission speed and digital transmission speed of UAV. Advanced autopilot makes the UAV no longer need land-based TV screen navigation, but fly to the hovering point according to the program, change the altitude and fly to the next target.