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mouse, while the U.S. government’s Global Hawk is 44 feet (13 meters) long and has a 115-foot (35-meter) wingspan. Larger drones that are used for military or commercial (business) purposes often have fixed wings and require short runways to take off. There are also VTOL drones, which can take off, fly, hover, and land vertically. (VTOL stands for Vertical Take-Off and Landing.) Many of these are quadcopters (a drone that has four horizontal rotors), but not all. Drones are built in different ways for different needs. For example, a racing drone is built for durability and speed, while a drone used in the motion picture industry would be slower and have a high-quality camera attached. Drones can be specially designed to work in or near extreme heat or cold, radiation, or in other demanding environments.

Drones can be piloted by a single person, by a group of people, or they can be directed by a computerized piloting system. Some drones are fully autonomous. This means that they’re programmed

A drone pilot uses handheld controls to pilot a drone.

to do various functions (e.g., take off, take photographs or video in one area, travel to another area to perform a different task, then return to mission headquarters and land).

One of the best things about drones is that young people like you can purchase or borrow an inexpensive drone and have a lot of fun flying it. You might love flying drones so much that you’ll decide to pursue a career as a drone pilot.

12 COOL CAREERS IN SCIENCE: DRONE PILOTS