Shakespeare's once wrote:
"... a rose by any other name, would smell as sweet;"
Could it be that the same could be said about Drones too? ... No matter what the Drone suppliers might think, to the contrary:
Why drone makers have declared war on the word ‘drone’
by Brian Fung, washingtonpost.com -- August 16, 2013
[...] The drone industry -- sorry, the unmanned aerial systems industry -- is in the midst of a massive rebranding campaign. For most Americans today, the word “drone” conjures images of lethal spy planes raining missiles down on targets in foreign theaters of war. But that perception doesn’t bode well for a burgeoning set of drone companies looking to shake up the civil aviation sector.
So those firms spent the week in Washington trying to convince inside-the-Beltway types that unmanned systems can be used off the battlefield in new, safe and uncontroversial ways. If they succeed in changing the narrative, drone manufacturers will have paved the way toward what some experts think is a $400 billion business in waiting.
[...]
I seriously doubt Drone vehicles will ever be made to seem "warm and fuzzy" ... especially the kind with the dangerous arms.
This sounds like a job for Mad Men -- you know, the marketing wizards of Madison Avenue fame.
Banishing the Word Drone Won't Solve the Unmanned Vehicle Industry's Real Problems
by Konstantin Kakaes, slate.com -- Aug. 16, 2013
At this week’s industry conference on drones, in Washington, D.C., a group of police and fire chiefs gathered to discuss how to increase their use of drones. But they used a different term: “UAS operations.” (UAS stands for “unmanned aircraft system.”)
You see, they have a problem with the word drone, wary of its negative connotations. They are trying to do their jobs, which are difficult, as best they can. They feel drones and the people who fly them have been unfairly demonized.
[...]
But the fire and police chiefs are making a big mistake. The words surveillance and drone aren’t what make people uneasy. It’s the concepts themselves. Drone is a good word because it accurately captures -- as words do better than acronyms -- the overlapping technologies by which aircraft fly without humans in the cockpit. The alternatives all fail in one respect or another. Aside from being unwieldy, they are precise in inaccurate ways. UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle, neglects the man on the ground controlling the aircraft. [...] Unmanned aerial system -- the UAS of the conference session’s title -- is even worse, in that “system” is a word of willful vagueness. Remotely piloted vehicle, or RPV, fails on the grounds that such aircraft are increasingly autonomous.
[...]
We're a smart bunch of people. Maybe we can help them figure out the "magic label" that will give the makers of Drones, half a fighting chance to tap into that $400 billion market, just sitting in the wings?
Here, I'll start ...
Instead of calling them Drones, we could rename them to:
Eyes in the Skies;
Total Awareness on Steroids;
The Meter of Justice;
The Pilot Protector;
Your worst Nightmare;
The last thing they'll ever hear;
Destiny's Equalizer.
Note: If any of these stick, I want in on the royalties ...
got that Mr Mad
Men? And don't Drone me, Bro! Because that would royally suck.