Aero Drone

Aero Drones are Vehicons from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Um, guys, ranged weapons mean you don't have to get that close...

Swarming in massive numbers, Aero Drones (aka Aero-drones,^[1] Aerodrones^[2] Sonic Attack Jets, and Aerial Drones^[3]) provide air support when the ground-based Vehicons attack. They're not very smart, but they have incredible speed and almost unlimited numbers.

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

Voice actor: N/A (English), Isshin Chiba, Yūichi Nagashima, Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese)

Several Aero Drones were used to deliver the transformation virus that devolved and paralyzed several of Optimus Primal's crew. Descent

Aero Drones were encountered by Blackarachnia and Cheetor when they were exploring the abandoned Cybertropolis. The Maximals had difficulty dealing with the drones, until they managed to master their new bodies' transformation. Once in robot mode, the Maximals made short work of the jets. Master of the House

The drones were granted a leader shortly thereafter when Megatron bestowed Silverbolt's spark upon an Aero Drone, creating Jetstorm. Fires of the Past

After the Maximals discovered Nightscream hiding in Cybertron's underground, they were attacked by a group of Aero Drones, led by their general. Though they managed to overpower the Maximals for a time, Nightscream managed to disrupt one of Jetstorm's homing projectiles, which blew up a number of the jets. The bat then used his sonic scream to scramble one of the drones’ targeting system, causing it to turn on the other Vehicons. Enraged, Jetstorm left to fetch another squadron of jet drones.

When Jetstorm returned, he and his drones found the Maximals eating the fruit of an organic tree. Cheetor was left to defend his comrades against the entire troop of jet drones, as they had been mentally affected by the tree's fruits. Once Cheetor destroyed the tree, the Maximals regained their senses and launched a counter-attack. Jetstorm was taken out by Nightstscream again, forcing the remaining Aero Drones to retreat with their commander in tow. Forbidden Fruit

A squad of Aero Drones participated in an attack against Cheetor, Nightscream and Rattrap when the three Maximals infiltrated a Vehicon assembly factory. When all three Vehicon Generals were taken out, Megatron took direct control of the Aero Drones. But in the wake of a power-feedback, Megatron was rendered weak, and all of the Vehicon drones were rendered offline for half a solar cycle. The Weak Component

The Aero Drones faced off against the Maximals later, near a spark-extraction factory. Those that weren't destroyed during the battle were fried when the nearby factory exploded. Discovery

Blackarachnia and Nightscream wreaked havoc in the streets of Cybertropolis to attract the attention of the other two Vehicon Generals while Cheetor and Rattrap went after Tankor. Jet drones soon converged on Blackarachnia and Nightscream's location. And began firing upon them, before being taken out. Descent

Once Megatron gained access to the Key to Vector Sigma, he armed his Aero Drones with the Key's code. The drones helped their general search the streets for the Maximals, in order to test out the power of the Key. Eventually happening upon Blackarachnia, the drones fired the Key's power wildly in her direction. Blackarachnia evaded the first volley of attacks. By the time the Aero Drones finally caught up to her, their general's former personality had been awakened by Blackarachnia. Silverbolt was confused as exactly how to proceed on how to stop his troops as they attacked them. A stray Key blast re-established Jetstorm's shell program, and the Vehicon General ordered his drones to continue their assault. Then the rest of the Maximals burst in, riding a giant vine. Both the Motorcycle Drones and the Aero Drones concentrated their fire on the vine, beginning a techno-matter infection that threatened to contaminate Cybertron's organic core. The Catalyst

Aero Drones patrolled the skies while the Tank Drones prepared to unleash the power of the Key to Vector Sigma on a planetary scale. The Maximals showed up, and the Aero Drones tried to destroyed their enemies once more. In the end, both the power of the Key to Vector Sigma and of the Plasma Energy Chamber were unleashed upon Cybertron, despite the Vehicons successfully defeating Optimus Primal's troops on the battlefield. End of the Line As the two conflicting energies clashed, the sum total of the Aero Drones were shorted out. Their idle forms could be seen littering the streets of Cybertropolis after Optimus siphoned away both the Plasma and Key energies into the Oracle. Fallout

Once Megatron retook control of Cybertron's system aboard his new body, the Grand Mal, he reactivated the Aero Drones. All of the Vehicons sprung back to life, and drove the Maximals back underground once again. Prometheus Unbound

Jetstorm and Thrust came upon Nightscream looking through some wreckage for Noble. When the other Maximals came to rescue their friend from the Vehicons, Jetstorm sent some of his drones after Cheetor. The battle was going in the Maximals’ favour until Megatron showed up and abducted both Optimus and Cheetor. In Darkest Knight

When a spaceship crashing down signaled the possibility of more Transformers returning to Cybertron, Megatron sent out a squad of Aero Drones to slow down the Maximals’ effort of reaching the shipwreck, while Thrust was tasked with eliminating any survivors. The drones proved less than effective in the absence of their general. Home Soil

After Obsidian was made a Vehicon General and the introduction of the Copter Drones, the Aero Drones were put in reserve. The Strike They were later used when Megatron launched his assault on the Maximal-occupied Grand Mal, possibly for purposes of troop augmentation. When Legends Fall

Waspscream continuity

In Primax 208.06 Zeta, Megatron also created the aero drones to be commanded by Jetstorm, but Waspscream's Predacons liberated Silverbolt from captivity. After Megatron's usurper Obsidian vanished, the anti-Vehicon forces easily dispatched the remaining Vehicons. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16

Beast Wars: Uprising

I want to tell you about the Transformers! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their fictional appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. Derailment

In the chaos of the Vehicon Apocalypse, the reborn Galvatron managed to acquire an Aero Drone, and spirited it away to his secret lair, where he spent a decacycle rebuilding it. When he was done, he brought the newly minted Jetstorm and his two other "generals" to life using the sparks of his Cyberdroid assistants. The Inexorable March

Toys

Beast Machines

One of the Blue Angels Blue Meanies.

• Sonic Attack Jet (Deluxe, 2000)

• Accessories: 2 "energy blast" missiles

Released in the seventh wave of Beast Machines Deluxes (and the only new item in said wave), the Sonic Attack Jet is a redeco of the Deluxe Vehicon Jetstorm mold, transforming into a Cybertronic jet fighter. Its jet-mode cockpit has a spring-loaded extension, giving it a bird-like head in this form that is articulated at the neck to "search" for targets. It is armed with two spring-loaded projectile launchers mounted in the wing mounts; these launchers end up in its arms in robot mode. It has a third robot mode that collapses the legs around the cockpit (oh hush), with flip-out panels revealing an extra pair of thrusters. A silver panel on the jet-mode top (robot mode back) can be flipped up to reveal a red Vehicon spark crystal.

This mold was also used to make Robots in Disguise Storm Jet and Jhiaxus, plus the 2003 Universe version of Generation 1 Skywarp.

• More information on the Sonic Attack Jet at TFU.info

Notes

• The Sonic Attack Jet toy is the very first Hasbro Transformer to be explicitly marketed as a "generic" army-builder rather than a named individual character who just happens to be completely visually identical to numerous other robots of that specific type. (It's not the first "generic" Transformer toy period, that one goes to the Seacons from Japan's Super-God Masterforce series in 1988.)
• In the Japanese dub, the Aero Drones inherited Jetstorm's (and, by extension, Silverbolt's) vocal tic of constantly shouting desu (です).

Foreign names

• Japanese: Aero Drone (エアロドローン Earo Dorōn)

References