02488cam a2200325 i 4500 296078668 TxAuBib 20141021120000.0 140425s2014||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2014014070 9780805099645 0805099646 eng rda TxAuBib rda Whittle, Richard. Predator [BOOK] : the secret origins of the drone revolution / Richard Whittle. Secret origins of the drone revolution. First edition. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2014. 353 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-336) and index. "The creation of the first weapon in history that can stalk and kill an enemy on the other side of the globe was far more than clever engineering. As Richard Whittle shows in Predator, it was the most profound development in military and aerospace technology since the intercontinental ballistic missile. Once considered fragile toys, drones were long thought to be of limited utility. The Predator itself was resisted at nearly every turn by the military establishment, but a few iconoclasts refused to see this new technology smothered at birth. The remarkable cast of characters responsible for developing the Predator includes a former Israeli inventor who turned his Los Angeles garage into a drone laboratory, two billionaire brothers marketing a futuristic weapon that would combat Communism, a pair of fighter pilots willing to buck their white-scarf fraternity, a cunning Pentagon operator nicknamed "Snake," and a secretive Air Force organization known as Big Safari. When an Air Force team unleashed the first lethal drone strikes in 2001 for the CIA, the military's view of drones changed nearly overnight. Based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews, Predator is a groundbreaking, dramatic account of the creation of a revolutionary weapon that forever changed the way we wage war"-- Provided by publisher. 20141021. Karem, Abraham 1937- Aerospace industries California, Southern History. Drone aircraft United States History. Drone aircraft United States Design and construction.