Elmer Sperry, a pioneering mind behind the gyroscope, helped launch what may have been the first successful unmanned aircraft. American T-Hawk droneBy Vietnam, unmanned systems had gone from novelty to necessity. Reconnaissance drones flew thousands of missions, snapping photographs, dropping psychological warfare leaflets, and hunting for enemy missile systems. In a new twist on “special operation,” swarms of unmanned systems struck deep behind the lines. The state news agency, TASS, ignored the attacks, but the Ministry of Defense decried the “terrorist attacks” from “kamikaze drones.”