Abraham Karem was the designer of the Albatross prototype, which later became the Predator drone. This is probably the drone with which we are most familiar from news reports on TV. He notes that drone makers have a distinct advantage in not needing to consider accommodation or life support for a pilot. Karem designed for endurance, giving his drone long wings to maximise lift and stability over speed and agility. He chose a propeller-driven engine because these are more fuel-efficient than jet engines, and usually easier to maintain. He located the propulsion at the rear of his drone to minimise any interference to sensors housed in the nose. The distinctive split downward-facing tail of the Predator exists to protect the propeller during take-off and landing. If the pilot attempts to come in at too steep an angle, the outer tails act like a pair of skids to prevent the propeller from striking the ground. The nose is bulbous to accommodate the satellite-communications equipment required to remotely pilot the drone.
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