Well the first thing we need to establish is whether drone is truly international. I suspect it might be from playing around with Google Translate. But it would be nice to have confirmation. So what is it in French German Russian Spanish?

Given that it is, the question then arises as to whether it should be drono or droneo under rule 15.

Actually drono is not impossible. There are precedents for this already in Esperanto where the root of the immediately obvious form coincides with an existing root.

Thus we have parko and parki. But this doesn't create a problem because the need for a noun from parki (to park eg a car) doesn't really exist, nor is there a need for a verb from parko (a public garden).

Similarly there wouldn't be a need for droni a verb from drono (UAV), and there isn't a need for drono from droni (to drown). Dronigo would still be verbal in meaning (ie from droni) as dronigo (cause to be a drone) would either not be needed or could be expressed otherwise, and dronado/dronigo would be drowning (as in death by).

Inidentally, coincidences between compounds and singe-root words - eg raketo (rocket) and raketo (little rack) - are certainly not uncommon in Esperanto, and the reason is often that the single-root word happens to be international.

Coincidences at the level of the root are less common but you will find them in PIV. Mino (the explosive device) and mino (the excavation) is an example where the part of speech is the same.

The pair korekta/korekti (a hairy old chestnut in Esperanto) is simply the adoption of two international words under rule 15, but usually root coincidence is caused by just one of the parts of speech being international and also not related in meaning to the other, which would be the case in the example of drono and droni.

Spavo (sen-pilota avio) for UAV is a happy invention, though the UAV's are often piloted from the ground and the little ones (the mult-helica mini-koptero) used by hobbyists and for agricultural, archaeological, TV sports reporting functions etc are hardily aviadiloj.

I was fidgeting around on the net, and found that the semantic field of 'drone' (noun) in French is much the same as in English ie the bee meaning, an idle person who lives off others work, and the pilotless radio controlled aircraft.

(postedit: whoops! I may have misread what I saw)

Tele-komandata avio is another possibility for drone (UAV).

But what is drone - the male bee whose sole function is to mate with the queen - in Esperanto. Is a drone just a vir-abelo?

sudanglo:I was fidgeting around on the net, and found that the semantic field of 'drone' (noun) in French is much the same as in English ie the bee meaning, an idle person who lives of others work, and the pilotless radio controlled aircraft.

That doesn't sound quite right for me as a native speaker. I have never heard "drone" being used in any other sense than the pilotless aircraft in France. Nor could I find any dictionary mentioning the two additional meanings. Where did you read that?

Back to the esperantigo of "drone", I think there are already enough words as it is, but should the need for synonyms arise, maybe "memflugmaŝino" is a possible candidate if we're going to emphasise the pilotlessness (and not so much the fact that it's actually remotely controlled). In the same vein, since "aviadi" means to pilot an aircraft, maybe there is a case for "memaviadilo" though it sounds kind of awkward (maybe it could be interpreted as an aircraft you can pilot without help?)

For a more technical-sounding translation, you could emphasise the notion of being remotely controlled.
This could be done with words such as "forpilotila aviadilo" (a remote-control aircraft), "eksterpilota aviadilo" or "forapilota aviadilo" (an aircraft with an external or remote pilot), etc.

The German word Drohne ['dro:nə] means 1. male bee and 2. piloteless aircraft (the second one probably taken over from English).
The word seems quite international for me.
As the e is written everywhere (the graphical form has priority in the Esperanto tradition) and in German also spoken, I would strongly prefer the form drone/o, which evites a collision with dron'.

Kirilo81:The German word Drohne ['dro:nə] means 1. male bee and 2. piloteless aircraft (the second one probably taken over from English).
The word seems quite international for me.
As the e is written everywhere (the graphical form has priority in the Esperanto tradition) and in German also spoken, I would strongly prefer the form drone/o, which evites a collision with dron'.

The only problem I see with droneo is that it gives, once again, an unfair advantage to speakers of European languages. I have looked up the translation in Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian since these languages tend to favour root combination and sure enough, they all use equivalents of "unmanned aircraft" (senhoma aviadilo)

That said, I also favour droneo over drono, as avoiding collision is another strong Esperanto tradition (in addition to giving precedence to the graphical form as you said).

Also, I like spavo for both being an internal creation and the way it sounds.

Also, I like spavo for both being an internal creation and the way it sounds.

Yes I reckon for the military use, spavo wins. It sounds like a weapon (glavo) and suggests secretive intrusion (spiono).

For the hobbyist and civilian forms - spaveto.

Perhaps the bee-keepers would like to use droneo for vir-abelo, and it then becomes available for figurative use (someone who doesn't work and lives off others efforts).

Yyaann, re. multiple meanings of 'drone' in French, I can't find the link now, possibly I misread the screen.