Looking a little closer, drones able to 'fly' on or under water have been around for over twelve years: this 'Loon Copter' developed at Oakland University in Michigan prototyped in 2014. The video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_wiVdY5BWU shows too how well these things work in water, where in many ways they are more impressive than in air.
Why is it only now though that maritime drones are surfacing in public conscience?
Sadly it is in the way that WW1 brought aircraft to public attention, and WW2 led to the broad adoption of air travel by that same public.
Only this week it has been said that the drones of one kind or another will constitute 80% of the British Army inventory; and in the way TVs seemingly went from a box shape to a flat in just a moment, use of drones in all spheres will be normalised by the current generation.
We have discussed the use of ballast in our own drone: this one here was among the first to use it to transition between movement above, on and under the water.
Don't look so stupid nowadays, do I?
(Ed. Yes, he does.)
