Predator Drone | From Albatross to Amber | S54-E1

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if you could design a spy plane that could be flown remotely and hover in the sky for hours, providing reconnaissance for troops on the ground? In the early 1980s, the visionary inventor Abe Karem begins building drones out of his L.A. garage. Soon, the Pentagon and the CIA take notice. Though he faces many challenges, Karem is on the forefront of a revolution that will change the face of modern aerial warfare.

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Transcript

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0:25.7	mobile app store today. CIA Campus, Langley,
0:37.0	Campus, Langley, Virginia, October 7, 2001. Inside an unassuming double wide trailer, Air Force pilot Scott Swants stares intently at
0:49.0	infrared images on a video screen as he manipulates a joystick controller. He's remotely flying a
0:55.8	high-tech unmanned drone called a predator. His mission commander, Mark
1:00.9	Kooter, sits a few feet behind him issuing orders through his headset.
1:05.2	Maintain hold over the target. Copy that. The predator is some 7,000 miles away,
1:12.1	hovering three miles above the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan.
1:15.7	It's less than a month after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and this is the first night of
1:21.8	Operation Enduring Freedom, the US military campaign against
1:26.1	Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
1:28.4	The predator is surveilling Osama bin Laden's second in command, Taliban Supreme Commander Mula Omar.
1:36.0	Swanson and Kooter Watch, as a three-vehicle convoy pulls into a walled compound of rectangular
1:41.6	buildings. Omar is believed to be in one of rectangular buildings.
1:42.8	Omar is believed to be in one of those vehicles.
1:46.2	Swanson stays glued to the aerial view on the screen, watching as the vehicles cross
1:50.9	a small bridge over a creek. One truck stops just beyond the
	...

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