The origin and development of unmanned aviation has been almost matched that of manned aviation, starting both from an almost common point. As in conventional manned aviation, military applications, have been the motor of technological development and the potential applications of these types of systems throughout much of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Finally it has been in relatively recent times that these systems are experiencing an impressive boom due to the discovery of the wide variety of commercial and civil operations that are able to perform very effectively. This paper attempts to summarize the historical evolution that these systems have suffered and in the end, to present a quick analysis of the major civil / commercial applications, trying to provide an overview of the main types of systems, their classification and general configuration. Key Words: UAV, RPAS, unmanned, aircraft configuration