And without the help of the people, Langton adds, the beaming from all the satellites and unmanned planes in the sky can be futile.

What makes these unmanned planes so special is that they fly by remote control, up to about 90 mph, at an altitude of up to 12,000 feet.

For training, we had a small, unmanned plane that towed a big white blanket as a target.

Military efforts to develop unmanned planes had existed for decades, but unreliable technology and shifting priorities had killed most of the programs.

By the time a Predator-launched missile killed a suspected Al Qaeda leader in 2002, even the public was accustomed to hearing about unmanned planes' successes.

But it now employs more than 2,400 workers and has sold more than 200 unmanned planes since 1993, according to a spokesman.

This year, the Air Force told Congress that it, rather than other branches of the military, should control the deployment of unmanned planes.

Now technology has finally caught up with the concept, and Northrop Grumman is in the process of building an unmanned shape-shifting plane: the Switchblade.

It is planned that at the end of the mission, the unmanned plane will attempt a landing on Titan's dunes.