We need to stop calling the things we fly drones!

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Drone sounds fine, sometimes I call it a POS, then I realize it was not the poor drone's fault. I give it a kiss, and it starts making droning sounds, then I discover one of my fingers has been lacerated.

Hell hath no fury, like a drone scorned.

 

[jaswalt]

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.

For instance, the word car.

 

[SETI 2022]

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.

How about an AIRCRAFT - UAV which is what it is , let them decide which it is in their world , the word drone is the same as saying its a CAR, a truck, ect, and if someone says you are a drone , our aircraft are away more sophisticated than that.

 

[Lets Fly]

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.

If we call it a Quadcopter or anything else, people around us will say, (What's Is That?), answer, well, it's a drone.

 

[jspil]

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.

Hard to un-ring that bell, but I personally like SUAS myself. I still think there will be some that use drone though.

 

[Clipper707]

The toothpaste is out of the tube.

A little surprised this topic was exhumed. I thought it was dead and buried.

There aren't many negative connotations about the word drone (besides the privacy concerns.)

Like others, I'm curious about what perceived confusion there is. When I'm flying my drone, with my hand-held controller attached to an iPhone, the public at large doesn't believe I'm operating a multi-million dollar weapon system with air-to-ground Hellfire missiles pointing at them.

In Vietnam, a drone like ours is a "flycam." Simple and descriptive, it's by far the best name for them I've heard.

The drone name isn't going away anytime soon.
This is called a Flycam in Saigon.

 

[Jigsaw43Bravo]

"Drone" was the name given to remotely controlled military aircraft that had but one function: They were TARGETS.
But the earlier statement about "the horse being out of the barn" is entirely correct. Once the media slaps a label on something, however inane, it usually sticks and the world follows along.

 

[Worsedog]

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

Your point is right on the mark. How many people say "facial tissues", it's kleenex?

 

[Ty Pilot]

. . . the word drone is the same as saying its a CAR, a truck, ect,

Actually the word 'drone' is less descriptive than the words 'cars' or 'trucks'. A car is not a truck and a truck is not a car.

But, as already mentioned, the word 'drone' can be used to describe our aircraft (multi-rotors), a military UAV, an underwater submersible or even a unmanned land robot and others.

So the word drone is like calling a car a 'vehicle' - so is a truck, a train, an airplane, a nuclear submarine, a motorcycle and just about anything that transfers people or items - could be called a vehicle.

Anyway - drone - we're stuck with it.

 

[tvc184]

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.

Close the thread!!

We have a simple one syllable word that practically everyone understands. I created and commanded a police drone unit and the policy is filled with sUAS, sUAV and UAV. Aaaaaand…. we call them drones and the drone unit. When a detective or supervisor needs aerial photos, surveillance or video , they don’t say get the small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Unit out here. They say “I need a drone”. In 4 syllables they have said a full sentence that we understand.

 

[eljimb0]

Good discussion .. Drone is a broad generic term.. male bee, a sound, a boring lecturer, a weapon of warfare, a target aircraft. We are not stuck with it, unless we chose to be. I like calling my iPad the Victrola because that sounds cool. Much better than gramophone, record player, stereo, tape player, CD, thumb drive, head set, whatever.

 

[MA2 317]

DJI calls them Camera Drones.

I call it a drone.

Or a flying camera.

I like the flycam term from Vietnam as mentioned by Clipper707.

It's simple and descriptive, but might also apply to a fixed wing aircraft with a camera. Which still works.

I'm a Trekkie so the drones I'm familiar with are the BORG.




.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Once the media slaps a label on something, however inane, it usually sticks and the world follows along.

Oh yes !
Not long ago, even rain event in Australia was termed a 'RAIN BOMB' by one online 'paper', and now it's stuck, hate it.
It's just raining heavily folks, as it sometimes does.

The toothpaste is out of the tube.

Regarding drones, yes, Elvis has left the building.

 

[Dpixtion]

Mine identifies as a Drone. Even if other miss identifies it’s it as a UFO, It’s structurally a drone by definition.

 

[smashse]

Having bees and UAVs... Well they are all drones (the male bees).

In a professional setting, it's a UAV, because that's why my FAA Certificate says. In general conversation with friends it's a drone.

 

[karlblessing]

Quadcopter seems to make the most sense to even someone who doesn't fly.

But marketing has had them called drones for so long it would be hard to get consumers to call them something else.

 

[GaryFlorida]

Aerial Camera.
That's it.
Brief story: I was in Afghanistan, AS A TOURIST, and had to clear (multiple concentric rings) of security at airports. One day, I got the full-on search of my backpack for one flight. As the courteous airport security guard kept opening more pockets in my backpack, along came a beautiful black case with "DJI" on it. I thought I was doomed. Asked what was this thing, I said slowly... "aerial camera," as the guard slowly nodded, like a "coach" and smiled. And onward I went. Aerial camera.
Drones Kill people. Negative public gut-reaction.

We take pictures with them. Beautiful pictures, and videos, too. Will anyone in the room please raise their hand if they do NOT take photos or videos with their aerial camera?

 

[Aus1]

I sometimes refer to mine as my 'aerial camera', or to drop camera names, use my 'DJI camera' in that the way people refer to their Nikon or Canon 650D, etc

 

[HUDFISH]

I think the word "drone" has been popularized by the media particularly when reporting military drone strikes. It makes for sensationalized journalism because a drone sounds like a killing machine with no people in the loop; a machine making decisions. This couldn't be further from the truth. Simple "drones" have at least a Remote Pilot and sometimes an observer and payload operator. In sophisticated military "drones" there can be a room full of people driving the outcome of a single drone strike. Fir the media to call it outer than a drone doesn't arouse emotional and doesn't sell news papers. Even if the drone is in autonomous modes it still needs a person in the loop for certain stages of flight.
For political correctness and a more inclusive naming convention, I prefer to drop the name "unmanned" and adopt the phrase Remote piloted aircraft.
In summary, I prefer to remove the word Drone and Unmanned and replace with Remote Piloted Aircraft. Thoughts?

 

[Gavin_UK]

To get accepted it has to be something short, simple, and describe what it does, so Aircam seems to fit the bill for me.
The word Drone has got a negative meaning to a lot of people, especially with regards to photography, so a more appropriate, and less invasive, name is needed.
'This photograph/video was taken with my Aircam', seems to me to be a more acceptable description to the general public than, 'This photograph/video was taken with my Drone'.