Engineering on Friday ‘toon: 99 Stealth Drones Go By

Floating in the summer sky.

Cabe Atwell

Related To:

Electronic Design

May 8, 2026

2 min read

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99 stealth drones go by...

A while ago, I saw a company press release talking about how they have a balloon drone launch system. I thought, what if the engineers stopped at the balloon part? Lazy engineers. Or efficient engineers?

Surveillance balloons are a real thing. Been around for a hundred years or more. They're cheap. My dystopian depiction here could be our future!

Also, this is my homage to one of my favorite comic book artists, Bob Burden. Every heard of Flamming Carrot or Mystery Men? That's him. I met him at San Diego Comic Con for the first time last year.

He handed me a little note as I passed by, it read: TOP SECRET

The other side:

Speaking with him is like one of his comics, kind of riding the fringe of sanity. But that is a story for another time.

In my homage, I wanted to create the intense shadow and desolate feel of his comic worlds. I think I got pretty close to it. What is wild to me, he draws with old-school pen and paper. So, his intense shadows are preplanned how the white highlights are put in. For me, I just drew them in digitally with white lines. I couldn't imagine getting it right on the first inking.

Well, duh, right? I'm not a pro cartoonist with 50+ years' experience like Bob.

Didn't see last week's cartoon? Check out the Engineering on Friday comic gallery.

Disclaimer: I can't believe I have to say this… but this cartoon is 100% drawn by me. Drawn by a human for humans. In this day and age of generative AI, it could be hard to tell. I feel real art by human artists is being drowned out by wannabes using AI, stealing art, style, hard work, and opportunity from others.

Support real artists.

About the Author

Cabe Atwell

Technology Editor, Electronic Design

Cabe is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design.

Engineer, Machinist, Maker, Writer, Cartoonist. A graduate Electrical Engineer actively plying his expertise in the industry and at his company, Gunhead. When not designing/building, he creates a steady torrent of projects and content in the media world. Many of his projects and articles are online at element14 & SolidSmack, industry-focused work at EETimes & EDN, and offbeat articles at Make Magazine. Currently, you can find him hosting webinars and contributing to Electronic Design and Machine Design.

Cabe is an electrical engineer, design consultant and author with 25 years’ experience. His most recent book is “Essential 555 IC: Design, Configure, and Create Clever Circuits”

Cabe writes the Engineering on Friday blog on Electronic Design.