Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

vraalapa t1_je69c1a wrote

Yeah RDR2 pretty much ruined Ghost Of Tsushima for me, which was a shame because I had really looked forward to it. It was just so empty and hollow in comparison, and like no depth at all to any character. Great combat in that game though.

1

FiveFive55 t1_je65r7m wrote

When I read this the first time I thought that your dad gave you an actual, decommissioned drone and just told you it was a model. Had to look up how large it was to be certain that wasn't the case. At 43' long I'm assuming it was not a real drone, unless you had an exceptionally large bedroom to put it inside.

It's kind of wild how our perspective on a word can change. 20 years ago if someone mentioned drones people would picture a giant military drone ready to drop bombs. Now you say it and pictures of tiny little toy-sized quadcopters pop into most people's minds.

9

ScottRiqui t1_je65jk7 wrote

The modern quadcopter drone dates back to a 1959 patent application.

The biggest difference is obviously that the new drones are battery powered rather than gas-powered, but the big characteristics (four rotors at the ends of folding arms, avoiding interference between rotors, maneuvering by varying the rotor tilt, etc.) were there almost 65 years ago.

1

JetScootr t1_je657gw wrote

Dad said they weren't allowed to talk about it then, but when he was telling me, it was because my brother had a RC model plane that Dad said was about the same level of tech - in a model plane a little bigger than a notebook. Dad didn't figure that the stuff he worked on was secret anymore :)

18