Rise of the drone: From Calif. garage to multibillion-dollar defense industry
By Peter Finn,
WashPost
Friday, December 23, 6:49 PM
Lake Forest, Calif. — In 1980, Abraham Karem, an engineer who had emigrated from Israel, retreated into his three-car garage in Hacienda Heights outside Los Angeles and, to the bemusement of his tolerant wife, began to build an aircraft.
The work eventually spilled into the guest room, and when Karem finished more than a year later, he wheeled into his driveway an odd, cigar-shaped craft that was destined to change the way the United States wages war.
The Albatross, as it was called, was transported to the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where it demonstrated the ability to stay aloft safely for up to 56 hours — a very, very long time in what was then the crash-prone world of drones.
Three iterations and more than a decade of development later, Karem’s modest-looking drone became the Predator, the lethal, remotely piloted machine that can circle above the enemy for nearly a day before controllers thousands of miles away in the southwestern United States launch Hellfire missiles toward targets they are watching on video screens.
(More here.)
WashPost
Friday, December 23, 6:49 PM
Lake Forest, Calif. — In 1980, Abraham Karem, an engineer who had emigrated from Israel, retreated into his three-car garage in Hacienda Heights outside Los Angeles and, to the bemusement of his tolerant wife, began to build an aircraft.
The work eventually spilled into the guest room, and when Karem finished more than a year later, he wheeled into his driveway an odd, cigar-shaped craft that was destined to change the way the United States wages war.
The Albatross, as it was called, was transported to the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where it demonstrated the ability to stay aloft safely for up to 56 hours — a very, very long time in what was then the crash-prone world of drones.
Three iterations and more than a decade of development later, Karem’s modest-looking drone became the Predator, the lethal, remotely piloted machine that can circle above the enemy for nearly a day before controllers thousands of miles away in the southwestern United States launch Hellfire missiles toward targets they are watching on video screens.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Dugway Proving Grounds outside of Wendover, Utah, has been spraying something over the skies of Elko County, Nevada, starting about a month ago. I just photographed no less than ten jets leaving what can't possibly be normal exhaust trails. They're about four times wider than the trails we're all used to seeing. Plus, we never get that many jets through here, at most about one a day. Dugway and The Newly-Formed Communist Government Of America are up to something very nefarious. And I know these jets must be from Dugway because they're the closest commie base. I'm writing all my local, county, state, and federal officials. You need to start making your voices heard about all the anti-American, anti-freedom crap that's coming down. Google "chemtrails" and see what you come up with. I'm emailing out my photos as we speak. Harold Dean Berry - Wells, Nevada.
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