The History of FPV
I’ve done a bit of work for RC magazines over the past few years, and one of the most interesting bits to write was a piece I was asked to do for “RC Flight Camera Action” magazine on the history of FPV. I’ve been FPVing since 2012, and have been around long enough to see lots of really cool and exciting developments… so I thought I knew a little about the history already. But digging in further and talking to some of the main payers in from those early days I learnt that, actually, I didn’t know much, so set about constructing a timeline and connecting all the pieces of information together.
The finished article appeared in the Spring 2017 edition of “RC Flight Camera Action”, which sadly turned out to be it’s last issue. A few months later the publishers, Traplett – who published a range of magazines including several other RC-based ones, went into receivership. This is a roundabout way of saying that I don’t know who owns the copyright for this any longer. So I’m going to post up my original words and pictures, but I’ll also link to a copy of what appeared in the magazine as well.
Every since the very inception of RC flying as a hobby, people have been attempting to carry cameras to capture aerial footage – guiding their aircraft around the skies from a distance, hoping they are lined up on their subject and footage is getting shot.
