A Brief History of Unmanned Aircraft
From bomb-bearing balloons to the Global Hawk.
- By Ed Darack
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 18, 2011
US Navy
The United States attempted to weaponize unpiloted bombers during World War II, using specially modified B-17 Flying Fortresses and other airplanes loaded with explosives. In Operation Aphrodite, the U.S. Army Air Forces installed radio-controlled actuators to each aircraft’s flight controls, along with two television cameras (one looking out the nose of the craft, and one aimed at its instrument panel). Two pilots set out in the drone B-17s. At an altitude of 10,000 feet, they armed the explosives, passed radio control to another B-17 (the “mothership”), then bailed out using parachutes. Personnel on the mothership (which was fitted with television receivers and radio control equipment) would then guide the drone to German V-2 launch sites. That was the plan, anyway. None of the B-17s (or B-24s or PB4Y-1s also used as makeshift UAVs) ever made it to their intended targets, and a number of crew—including Joseph Kennedy Jr. (pictured)—died during these attempts.
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Comments (6)
I really liked the piece on "A Brief History of Unmanned Aircraft". I learned some things that I did not know.
Posted by Robert Bone on May 25,2011 | 01:37 PM
Really enjoyed this set... especially the Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Monroe connection with Radioplane. A very small world makes for great history telling. Enjoyed the story greatly.
Posted by Ray Krause on May 25,2011 | 08:09 PM
I expected to see the Ryan Model 154-AQM 91A "Compass Arrow" from 1968 in your history of Unmanned Aircraft.
It was a big step forward in this field.
Check "Fireflies and other UAV's" by William Wagner published in 1992.
Posted by Roy Benstead on May 26,2011 | 08:37 PM
In the article you start out by saying Naval Aviators learned in T-6'. Not so, they flew the SNJ. Pretty much the same a/c but a T-6 is a T-6 and an SNJ is still an SNJ.I served aboard NAAS Miramar in 1952 as plane captain for an SNJ and an SNB Miramar hadn't been designated NAS yet so we were basically the only a/c on base. It was a great time to be there, a time to learn and improve my skills as an Aviation Mech with a crew that cared about the a/c we sent out everday. Glenn Dunham, AD2
Posted by glenn dunham on June 10,2011 | 01:47 PM
following up on the article with Ronald Reagan and Marily Monroe with Radioplane. I too was surprised by the connection because after my first assignment at Miramar I was transferred to Hawaii's Barbers Point utility squadron and worked in a KD238 where we flew Radioplane KD-28 drones. We flew them off the North Shore of Oahu at Dillingham AFB and off an A/C carrier to service the guns on several DD's on a cruise to Japan. We flew both prop driven and pulse jet engines and I still have pictures of both kind if anybody woulc care to share. glennginny@hotmail.com
Posted by glenn dunham on June 10,2011 | 02:03 PM
"The Buzz Bombs proved devastating, killing more than 10,000 civilians and injuring nearly 28,000."
And the many inmates at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camp in the Harz mountains Germany, where these weapons where build under greawsom conditions..
I live under one of the old V-1 'flight-lines' from Rotterdam-Pernis to Antwerp. I remember the removals of a number of malfunctioned and crashed V-1's in my neighborhood at Spijkenisse, the Netherlands.
Posted by Arjan Wolters on July 20,2011 | 03:47 PM