How did I find it?
As a geoinformatician and drone enthusiast, one’s attention is naturally drawn to anything related to drone technology or autonomous flight. This was exactly what happened when I came across Abraham Merritt’s The Drone (originally The Drone Man, 1934). My professional instincts immediately kicked in. I expected to find an early, visionary science fiction story from the 1930s, perhaps a theoretical precursor to fixed-wing or rotary-wing military reconnaissance vehicles, or even to steampunk-style automation.
However, the work is not about mechanical drones in the modern sense. Instead, it is a classic weird fiction/horror novella that explores the theme of human transformation (metamorphosis).
Although today the title might easily lead us to associate the story with technology, Merritt’s tale is entirely biological and spiritual in nature, referring to the original meaning of the word drone: the male bee.
The Story, in brief
The novella’s plot can be divided into two main parts, connected by a frame narrative involving a group of men conversing at the Explorers’ Club.
1. The Shaman Who Turns into a Hyena (First part)
The story opens with a recollection of an African expedition. It tells of a tribal sorcerer or shaman who, during the full moon, is able to transform into a gigantic hyena the size of a man and hunt through the night. This section draws heavily on the classic folklore motif of the shapeshifter and traditions associated with lycanthropy.
2. The Man Who Becomes a Bee (Second part)
The true core of the novella is the story of a character named Ferguson, who gradually transforms into a drone bee. As the physical metamorphosis progresses, his body becomes covered with fine yellowish hair, his eyes begin to change, and his voice takes on a strange, buzzing quality.
Ferguson longs for this unusual existence because, compared to the dull routine of human life, he imagines the life of bees as carefree, nectar-intoxicated, and ecstatic. The story’s conclusion, however, takes a tragic turn, as Merritt weaves remarkably accurate biological knowledge into the narrative. Only at the end of his transformation does Ferguson realize the true and cruel fate of the drone bee: it exists for a single ecstatic moment, the opportunity to mate with the queen, after which it dies immediately.
But How Does the Drone Fit into All This?
Today, the word drone comes from the English drone, whose original meaning is male honey bee (the male bee), and by extension the monotonous buzzing sound produced by the insect. The fact that the term later came to refer to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be traced back to a remarkably clever piece of military nomenclature from the 1930s, one that was indirectly connected to a queen.
In the early 1930s, the British Royal Air Force developed a radio-controlled, pilotless target aircraft intended for anti-aircraft gunnery training. The aircraft was named the de Havilland Queen Bee. It proved to be a successful and influential design, with several hundred units being produced.
In 1935, Admiral Delmar Fahrney, a senior officer in the United States Navy, visited the United Kingdom, where he witnessed a demonstration of the Queen Bee. Impressed by the concept, he was tasked upon his return to the United States with leading the development of a similar American pilotless target aircraft program. As a tribute to the British name Queen Bee, and with a touch of symbolism, since these aircraft operated as obedient, subordinate units directed from elsewhere, much like male bees serving the queen, Fahrney adopted the term drone (male bee) in 1936 as the official designation for American unmanned aircraft.
The choice of name was brilliant not only because it followed the British example, but also because the metaphor of the drone bee was a perfect fit for these machines from both a biological and a physical perspective. On the one hand, the early unmanned aircraft, equipped with two-stroke engines, produced a continuous, monotonous buzzing sound in the air, much like that of a flying male bee. On the other hand, their function was strikingly similar as well: just as the drone bee neither collects pollen nor defends the hive, but dies after fulfilling its single purpose, these aircraft were intended as targets for gunnery practice and were often destroyed at the end of their mission.
References
Newcome, L. R. (2004). Unmanned Aviation: A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. https://doi.org/10.2514/4.868894
Blom, J. D. (2010). Unmanned Aerial Systems: A Historical Perspective (Occasional Paper 37). Combat Studies Institute Press, US Army Combined Arms Center. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/OP37.pdf