Zworykin discovered the drone formula by coupling television with remote-controlled flight

Evidence

Coupling television with the remote-controlled plane, Zworykin had discovered the formula that, much later, would become that of both “smart bombs” and armed drones: remove from the plane any part of the pilot save an electronic retina, with the pilot’s actual body remaining elsewhere, out of range of the enemy antiair defenses. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 317

Related

• Present-day drones combine remote control and autonomous piloting. (similarity 0.82)
• Drones add the remote control’s range to the weapon’s range. (similarity 0.81)
• Drones multiplied ballistic reach by adding remote-control distance to weapon range (similarity 0.81)
• Drones evolved from surveillance eyes into lethal hunter-killer weapons. (similarity 0.81)
• Drones transformed from surveillance eyes into weapons almost by chance. (similarity 0.81)
• Remote-controlled machines were proposed as a third option beyond protected men or autonomous machines (similarity 0.80)
• dronization of soldiers was a precondition for the pure drone (similarity 0.79)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.79)
• Drone targeting echoes archaic wax-doll nailing practices (similarity 0.78)
• Drones resolve the guerrilla problem by depriving insurgents of any target to attack. (similarity 0.78)
• Drone surveillance transforms the panopticon from a punishing to an annihilating gaze. (similarity 0.78)