[Lab] Time Magazine Special Edition: The Drone Age

[Jason Cobill]

   I have to make sure to pick one of these up - Time Magazine's latest
edition examines the impact of drones on a number of contexts - border
security, environmental conservation, military strategy, emergency relief
efforts, and hollywood film-making.
   I feel like the breadth of the topic really demonstrates how a broadly
accessible tool can have incredible impact in unexpected domains - both for
good and bad, and I find that really fascinating.

   http://time.com/collection/drones/

   Question: Does anyone have an intuition about why quad-copters became
such a successful chassis? Remote control planes (move too fast for
cameras?) and helicopters (too shaky? too difficult to fly?) have been
around for a long time, and hobbyist RC aircraft technology is moving along
at a brisk pace. (Tiny jet engines are so cool!
http://www.chiefaircraft.com/radio-control/turbine-engines/jetcat.html ) I
expect more diversity in drone designs but quad-copters seem to have an
overwhelming share of the consumer market.

   -Jason
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