Ed Darack

Ed Darack

 

Air & Space/Smithsonian contributing editor Ed Darack is the author of The Warriors of Anbar; War Moments; The Final Mission of Extortion 17; Victory Point; and three other books. He is the founder of Darack Research, a company that innovates unmanned systems, which grew out of his July 2014 Air & Space article Build Your Own Drone.

A drone and a keyboard -- it doesn't take much more.

Drone Hacking Made Easy

Nice drone...shame if something were to happen to it.

A Taliban drone captures a car bomb explosion

The Taliban Discovers Drones

What does one slick-looking propaganda video mean?

A Brazilian Air Force AMX with birdstrike damage. Birds are feathers and bone—no bets what metal and plastic would do.

Can a Tiny Drone Take Down an Airliner?

There’s only one way to find out...

Follow me, Mavic.

The Drone You Command With a Wave of Your Hand

The Mavic Pro introduces point and click control, minus the click.

Aurora Flight Sciences' LightningStrike concept

Uber Looks to the Skies

One day, you may be able to summon a drone.

A British soldier releases Prox Dynamics' Black Hornet

Forget the Predator, Military Drones Are Getting Smaller

Look out for the little ones.

Guardrail aircraft were first used in Germany in 1971 to monitor Soviet troops in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Beginning in 1984, the inventory was updated to the Northrop Grumman RC-12.

See, Hear, Sniff: How Airborne Spies Collect Intel

Spyplanes are filled with gizmos that gather information in three major ways.

First spotted in Afghanistan and now flying at Creech Air Force Base, the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel is the first U.S. Air Force stealth drone—we think.

The Drone that Stalked Bin Laden

The RQ-170 provided a secret, and vital, piece of the intel puzzle.

Part of an F-106 that crashed in 1964. The wreckage is in a stand of trees that hasn't been harvested—or visited—in 50 years.

In a Remote Forest, Traces of a 50-Year-Old Mystery

A forester uncovers the nearly forgotten wreckage of an Air Force F-106 that went down in 1964.

Geospatial engineer Private Miranda Yost of the 117th Space Battalion works with software that helps troops and emergency response teams target locations.

Need a Satellite Link? Call the 117th Space Battalion

Sometimes a soldier’s best friend is an IT guy with a satellite dish.

The Chinook's cargo capacity, speed, and high-altitude performance make it the ideal support aircraft for Special Operations teams in Afghanistan. Here, a CH-47D Chinook flies over the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, California.

The Final Flight of Extortion 17

It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. Why did it happen?

Helicopters were called in to help rescue climbers who fell into this crevasse on Mount Hood in 2002.

Calamity on Mt. Hood

When shifting winds downed a helicopter.

A student holds his Kiowa atop a precarious perch about 500 feet above the ground.

Mountain Training for Helicopter Pilots

An Army school in Colorado shows military pilots how to master the heights.

The author flies his homebuilt UAV, the Kestrel-6.

Build Your Own Drone

Made from scratch, a Kestrel takes flight.

Staff Sergeant Michelle Torrey, right, with Master Sergeant Brett Kitzman load an AIM-120 missile onto an F-16.

The Changing of the Guard

Ten years after 9/11, what life is like in an Air National Guard unit.

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Mile High Militia

Meet the members of the 120th Fighter Squadron, who protect the skies over Colorado.

An MQ-1 Predator over a mountain range in Nevada.

A Brief History of Unmanned Aircraft

From bomb-bearing balloons to the Global Hawk

Night Launch

Adventures of a first-time shuttle photographer.

The Osprey’s role in Afghanistan has been mainly assault support: transporting troops and supplies (here, Army soldiers unload gear from an MV-22 at a remote combat outpost).

Osprey at War

Can the MV-22 pass muster in Afghanistan?

In Malaysia, Marines found out how their F/A-18D Hornets (left) performed against Russian-built MiG-29s (right).

Hornet v. MiG

U.S. Marine aviators to Malaysian MiG pilots: Show us what you got.

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