Editing Aero Drone

{{Factions|vehicon}}
:''Aero Drones are [[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicons]] from the [[Beast Machines: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Machines]] portion of the [[Generation 1 continuity family]].''
[[File:SonicAttackDrone2.JPG|upright=2.33|thumb|Um, guys, ranged weapons mean you don't have to get that close...]]

Swarming in massive numbers, '''Aero Drones''' (aka '''Aero-drones''',<ref>''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (toyline)|Beast Machines]]'' Deluxe Class [[Jetstorm (BM)#Toys|Jetstorm]] bio</ref> '''Aerodrones'''<ref>''Beast Machines'' Ultra Class Jetstorm bio</ref> '''Sonic Attack Jets''', and '''Aerial Drones'''<ref>''Beast Machines'' Deluxe Class Sonic Attack Jet bio</ref>) 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===
{{voiceactor|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. {{storylink|Revelations Part II: Descent|Descent}}

Aero Drones were encountered by [[Blackarachnia (BW)|Blackarachnia]] and [[Cheetor (BW)|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. {{storylink|Master of the House}}

The drones were granted a leader shortly thereafter when Megatron bestowed [[Silverbolt (Fuzor)|Silverbolt]]'s spark upon an Aero Drone, creating Jetstorm. {{storylink|Fires of the Past}}

After the Maximals discovered [[Nightscream (BM)|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|Revelations Part I: Discovery|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. {{storylink|Revelations Part II: Descent|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|Fallout (episode)|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|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. {{storylink|Home Soil}}

After [[Obsidian (BM)|Obsidian]] was made a [[Vehicon general]] and the introduction of the [[Copter Drone]]s, the Aero Drones were put in reserve. {{storylink|Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike|The Strike}} They were later used when [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]] launched his assault on the [[Maximal]]-occupied [[Grand Mal]], possibly for purposes of troop augmentation. {{storylink|Endgame Pt. II: When Legends Fall|When Legends Fall}}

===Waspscream continuity===
In [[Primax 208.06 Zeta]], Megatron also created the aero drones to be commanded by Jetstorm, but [[Starscream (G1)|Waspscream]]'s Predacons liberated Silverbolt from captivity. After Megatron's usurper Obsidian [[Universe War|vanished]], the anti-Vehicon forces easily dispatched the remaining Vehicons. {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16}}

===''Beast Wars: Uprising''===
{{charstubfiction|{{storylink|Derailment}}}}

In the chaos of the Vehicon Apocalypse, the reborn [[Galvatron (BW)|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. {{storylink|The Inexorable March}}

{{--}}

==Toys==
===''Beast Machines''===
[[File:BM-toy SonicAttackJet.jpg|upright=1.67|thumb|One of the <s>Blue Angels</s> Blue Meanies.]]
*'''Sonic Attack Jet''' (Deluxe, 2000)
**''Accessories'': 2 "energy blast" missiles

: Released in the seventh wave of ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (toyline)|Beast Machines]]'' Deluxes (and the only new item in said wave), the Sonic Attack Jet is a [[redeco]] of the  Deluxe [[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicon]] [[Jetstorm (BM)#Toys|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 ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 toyline)|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Storm Jet (RID)#Toys|Storm Jet]] and [[Jhiaxus (RID)#Toys|Jhiaxus]], plus the [[Transformers: Universe (2003 toyline)|2003 ''Universe'']] version of [[Skywarp (G1)/toys#Universe (2003)|Generation 1 Skywarp]].

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2000/Vehicon/SonicAttackJet/sonicattackjet.htm 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-building|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 [[Seacon (Masterforce)|Seacon]]s from Japan's ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (toyline)#1988 (Super-God Masterforce)|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==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Beast Machines Vehicons]]
[[Category:Beast Wars: Uprising Vehicons]]
[[Category:Drones]]
[[Category:Mass-produced Transformers]]