Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases

especially written for people learning English. On today's program, John Russell reports on

unmanned aircraft for agriculture.

Jill Robbins has a story about an ancient bird-like animal.

Brian Lynn tells about the Voyager spacecraft on the Science Report.

Then, wishing, on Lesson of the Day.

But first... American companies are developing unmanned aircraft systems that are larger than drones.

The goal is for the aircraft to help agricultural producers and reduce risks to human safety.

When Hector Zhu was learning to pilot a helicopter in college, he remembered having a few bad

experiences while flying at night. The experiences led him to research unmanned aircraft systems

while getting his doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then Zhu formed rotor

technologies in 2021 to develop unmanned helicopters.

Rotor has built two autonomous helicopters that the company calls spray hawks.

Roder aims to have as many as 20 spray hawks ready for market next year.

The company also is developing helicopters that would fly shipments into disaster areas

and to oil rigs in oceans.

The helicopters could also be used to fight wildfires. For now, Rotor is paying attention

to agriculture. The industry has accepted automation with drones, but sees unmanned helicopters

as a better way to spray larger areas with pesticides and fertilizers.

...