Bee drone to military drone to surveillance drone

 A buzzing sound above…

Veronica: Is it a bird?

Ethan: No, it’s an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Veronica: Pedant. Isn’t it a drone?

Ethan: Well, yes.

Veronica: Why do they call them that? Where did the name drone come from?

Ethan: Some say it was the noise of a bee, droning. It’s also said that there were unmanned airplanes developed to carry bombs and were guided by cameras and radio waves to crash into enemy ships. Like bee drones, they fly out to mate with a queen bee, then die.

Veronica: A short but happy life.

Ethan: Another thing about bee drones is that they have bigger eyes than other bees.

Veronica: All the better to find the queen with?

Ethan: They need good eyes to find the target. Bee drones, and war drones, are single use only. Drones for aerial camera work take pictures of everything. They can be reused.

__________

Voice-over

Drones are much smaller, more sophisticated and more reliable than early military drones deployed on a small scale in World War II in the Solomon Islands.