last updated 29 July 2019

Under Construction

See also Drones in Products

Originally developed for military and special operation applications.
Now used in a small but growing number of civil applications, such as policing and firefighting, and nonmilitary security work, such as surveillance of pipelines, Amazon delivery, Real estate arial photos.
Hobby Drones have become popular around 2015 and fall into 3 categories:


Rules
See Summary Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule (Part 107) - FAA for more.
Finding places to fly can be difficult: BR> How to buy a drone in 2018 - CNET
In New Jersey and work in New York, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find places to safely -- and legally -- fly. US national parks are off-limits, and in New Jersey so are all state parks. The county and municipal parks around me all have different regulations regarding RC aircraft. And then there are the no-fly zones, which makes much of New York out of bounds as well as just dangerous, because of buildings, people and cars. Before you buy a drone -- even a toy one if you plan to fly outside -- you'll want to visit AirMap or Mapbox to check no-fly zones for places you intend to fly. In the US, you can also download the FAA's B4UFly app to check your planned location. These don't cover state or local ordinances, though, so you'll still need to check them to see if you're OK to fly.

Federal Aviation Administration - Graphic Temporary Flight Restrictions or TFR


DJI Spark
Terms:
Drone
FTV - First-person view - Video Piloting from  fpv goggles or a video monitor.
AMA - Academy of Model Aeronautics
ATC - Air Traffic Controller
AUVSI - Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
IMU - Inertial Measurement Unit - An electronic device that measures and reports
 an object’s specific force, angular velocity and attitude
  (including its course angle, pitch angle, and roll angle)
   using data from an accelerometer, gyroscope, thermometer, and barometer. 
Accelerometer, Gyro and IMU Buying Guide - SparkFun Electronics QuadCopter - 4 rotor copter RC - Radio Controlled RPAS - Remotely Piloted Aerial System RTF - Ready to Fly RTH - Return to Home RPV - Remote-person view (same as FPV) RPAV - Remotely piloted aerial vehicle RPAS - remotely piloted aircraft system Selfi Drone - Drones with simple Point and shoot cameras. sUAS - Small UAS TFR temporary flight restrictions or TFR UAV - Unmanned Arial Vehicle UAS - Unmanned aircraft system (DoD) UAVS - unmanned-aircraft vehicle system VLOS - Visual line-of-sight Aerial Photography and Drone Glossary | explora | B&H

Links:
Drone Reviews in Products
UAS Regstration FAA
B4UFLY Mobile App - FAA How drones could replace workers on American farms | PBS NewsHour
Feds OK Amazon's delivery drone tests (for real, this time) | PBS NewsHour
Argus camera contains 368 cellphone imaging chips and can pick up a 6 1/2 inch object.
NOVA -| Rise of the Drones