The Predator. The Reaper. The Gorgon Stare. The Dennymite.Today’s high tech UAVs have the lure of Hollywood to thank for their existence. One of the first drones was built by an English WWI pilot who hopped the pond to pursue his acting dream. Reginald Denny developed his first RP-1 model as a drone designed for military target practice. “He pitched basically a radio controlled airplane to fly as a target,” says Tony Chong, Northrop Grumman’s in-house historian, “A lot of people knew how to fly radio controlled planes back then. It wasn’t a big leap to teach military personnel how to use them.”While Denny’s acting career never really took off, his drone invention hobby proved successful. And he might also take credit for helping to launch the career of the most famous actress ever. Denny, believing there was real ‘morale’ potential on his factory floor, urged the captain of the Army’s PR Hollywood division (Ronald Regan, obviously) to send over a photographer. And that’s where he found Marilyn Monroe working the assembly line.How’s that for morale?Read the rest at Motherboard.