Flying a drone tends to bring back childhood memories if you ever flew a kite or paper plane. Drones are an exciting technology that’s evolving rapidly. Driven by creativity and innovation, drone technology will impact the way we live and conduct business, now and in the future. There are endless possibilities to what these flying machines can do.

Here are ten interesting facts about drones everyone should know:

• A drone is an aircraft without a (human) pilot on board.
• Some of the world’s smallest drones weigh less than 1 gram.
• The term “drone” is believed to be coined from the similarities in movement and sound of unmanned aircraft to the male bee.
• Drones have other names. Some regulators refer to them as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).
• Drone use is expanding beyond military application into recreational, scientific, industrial, agricultural and other applications.
• The application of drone technology benefits many industries, including photography, mapping & surveying, security, agriculture, disaster response, constructions, real estate, transport and many others.
• Common examples of drone use include:
  • Photography: capture aerial photos and landscapes.
  • Mapping: complement existing methods for capturing data for maps.
  • Infrastructure: Capture and analyse data for telecom tower audits and oil & gas pipeline inspections.
  • Farming: capture aerial data to assess crop health.
  • Farming: apply liquid pesticides and fertilizers with drones for more efficient results.
• It is not all about a drone’s flying capability; sensors, software, and interconnected systems come together to make commercial application of drone technology possible and beneficial.
• Drones can be controlled either by remote control (via a pilot on the ground) or autonomously (via on-board computers).
• Drones can be programmed to fly in pre-defined direction, straight lines, orbits or other flight patterns.

So whether it is for recreational, professional or commercial use, get a drone and tap into your creative side.