We need to stop calling the things we fly drones!

[Mavic Merrick]

Hi everyone, with all the confusion about “drones” recently, I think we need to stop calling them drones and start calling them something else. I know this idea has been thrown around for a long time but no changes have really been made. A drone is any thing from a tiny 1 inch toy from Amazon to a military UAV that is the size of an airplane, costs millions, and kills hundreds if not thousands of people.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

I am partial to option 3 but you make your picks!

 

[umanbean]

IMO, it's too late - that horse is already out of the barn.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Drone, full stop.

It's nice and simple and commonly understood. don't fancy any of the acronyms.
If a change is a must "'xyz'copter" would be my choice but I do not see why a name change is necessary.

 

[old man mavic]

i must admit when i first came on this forum i to did not like the term drone very much
and i tried to refer to them as UAV's ,but after a while i just reverted to drone ,like every one else in my posts,and as @umanbean says its to late now ,drone it seems, is a generic term to describe anything that flies without a pilot in it ,and indeed even driverless vehicles and underwater unmanned vehicles get tagged with the same name

 

[george formby]

Never called mine a Dr One.
Always refer to it as a toy helicopter with a camera on it.
To me a drone is something like a military Reaper.

 

[Shenga]

Working in the Nuclear Industry we have so many abbreviations that I just stick to 'Drone' I'm afraid.

 

[Ty Pilot]

Yeah, about the word 'drone' - that horse left the barn over a decade ago.

What should we call them? Their category name is Multi-rotor. Before everyone and their brother started calling them the 'D' word, they were RC Multi-Rotors but I suppose that was too boring and so we ended up being stuck with it. Any discussion I have with clients or the general public, I still use the term Multi-Rotor because that is what it is and can refer to any platform, regardless of numbers of engines.

 

[BigAl07]

We lost the option to NOT use the term drones many Many MANY moons ago. As soon as the media utilized the term it was a DONE deal. Your time would be well spent on doing just about anything else besides trying to change the "Standard" term used around the world.

 

[YVRGUY]

Hi everyone, with all the confusion about “drones” recently, I think we need to stop calling them drones and start calling them something else. I know this idea has been thrown around for a long time but no changes have really been made. A drone is any thing from a tiny 1 inch toy from Amazon to a military UAV that is the size of an airplane, costs millions, and kills hundreds if not thousands of people.

Mavic Merrick, today I read a news article where a plane departing from Toronto International had a near miss in what the journalist said was an “unmanned aerial vehicle” and in brackets (drone). So, maybe there’s a name swing happening. So I cast my vote for ‘unmanned aerial vehicle (drone)

 

[Meta4]

Hi everyone, with all the confusion about “drones” recently, I think we need to stop calling them drones and start calling them something else.

Call yours whatever you like, but to the rest of the world, it's still drone.
And that's not such a problem.
People are familiar with the idea of a generic term applying to a range of different things.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

Mavic Merrick, today I read a news article where a plane departing from Toronto International had a near miss in what the journalist said was an “unmanned aerial vehicle” and in brackets (drone). So, maybe there’s a name swing happening. So I cast my vote for ‘unmanned aerial vehicle (drone)

See, and those are the pilots that are raising concerns about UAVs for the rest of the community, thanks guys LOL

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Aerial camera platform is very non confronting, bit of a mouthful.
A good term going through customs though.

I think it's a bit of a laziness thing involved too.
Drone is almost one syllable, rolls out easily.
Quad-copter (quad is ok though).
Even U-A-V is shorter but takes more to get out (easier to write).

Afraid we are stuck with drone, everything from the most basic & innocent hobbyist aircraft to the multi million $, destructive military types.

 

[Wumpus_NJ]

I like "befordles"...has a nice ring to it.......NOT!!

 

[Vic Moss]

Yeah, that ship has sailed. You're about 4 years too late to change this.

They're drones. Always have been, always will be.

 

[Wumpus_NJ]

Hi everyone, with all the confusion about “drones” recently, I think we need to stop calling them drones and start calling them something else. I know this idea has been thrown around for a long time but no changes have really been made. A drone is any thing from a tiny 1 inch toy from Amazon to a military UAV that is the size of an airplane, costs millions, and kills hundreds if not thousands of people.

What confusion?

 

[Starz]

And remember when they were called”quadcopters”?

 

[Yaros]

I call mine Quad/Quadcopter sometimes, but "Drone" is just much simpler!

 

[Ralph thompson]

In Canada we call them RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System), defined in our Canadian Aviation Regulations and adopted by ICAO as an international term (https://www.icao.int/safety/UA/Documents/ICAO RPAS CONOPS.pdf)
It seemed clumsy initially but has caught on. I think it was adopted initially as a term to distinguish the equipment from military drones.

 

[Chaosrider]

IMO, it's too late - that horse is already out of the barn.

Or, alternatively, that ship has sailed. The train has left the station. Or...

I affirmatively like the term "drone". Although, they're getting smart enough, that "droid" might work soon...

;-)

What's the confusion that you reference?

Thx.