The earliest recorded use of an unmanned aerial vehicle for warfighting occurred on July 1849,[14] serving as a balloon carrier (the precursor to the aircraft carrier)[15] in the first offensive use of air power in naval aviation.[16][17][18] Austrian forces besieging Venice attempted to launch some 200 incendiary balloons at the besieged city. The balloons were launched mainly from land; however, some were also launched from the Austrian ship SMS Vulcano. At least one bomb fell in the city; however, due to the wind changing after launch, most of the balloons missed their target, and some drifted back over Austrian lines and the launching ship Vulcano.[19][20][21]
UAV innovations started in the early 1900s and originally focused on providing practice targets for training military personnel. UAV development continued during World War I, when the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company invented a pilotless aerial torpedo that would explode at a preset time.[22]
The earliest attempt at a powered UAV was A. M. Low‘s “Aerial Target” in 1916.[23] Nikola Tesla described a fleet of uncrewed aerial combat vehicles in 1915.[24] Advances followed during and after World War I, including the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane. This development also inspired the development of the Kettering Bug by Charles Kettering from Dayton, Ohio. This was initially meant as an uncrewed plane that would carry an explosive payload to a predetermined target. The first scaled remote piloted vehicle was developed by film star and model-airplane enthusiast Reginald Denny in 1935.[23] More emerged during World War II – used both to train antiaircraft gunners and to fly attack missions. Nazi Germany produced and used various UAV aircraft during the war. Jet engines entered service after World War II in vehicles such as the Australian GAF Jindivik, and Teledyne Ryan Firebee I of 1951, while companies like Beechcraft offered their Model 1001 for the U.S. Navy in 1955.[23] Nevertheless, they were little more than remote-controlled airplanes until the Vietnam War.