http://www.macworld.com/article/2048737/get-to-know-ios-7-airdrop.html
"How does AirDrop work? Interestingly, it requires that you enable both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your device. We suspect this is because Apple is using an approach similar to that enabled by Bluetooth 3.0 + HS. This technology allows two devices to use Bluetooth to establish a secure, direct connection, and then hands off the actual data transfer to Wi-Fi for faster performance. Given that all iOS devices that support AirDrop include Bluetooth 4.0LE,
its likely that Apple is using Bluetooth 4.0s low-power mode for discovery, and then Wi-Fi for actual data transmission."