1950's Drone Aircraft - How did they fly them?

[Dave Downs]

I grew up near Johnsville Naval Air Station (later Johnsville Naval Air Development Center) in SE Penna. In the early to mid '50's I remember seeing all-red Corsairs flying in the area, and local legend was that they were radio-controlled. I've seen photo's here of piston engine drones, mostley Wildcats painted pink, and I know there were P-39 drones.

My question is how the heck did they manage to fly them, with 1940's vintage tube radios, and high-horsepower, high-torque piston engines in tailwheel aircraft? Take-offs and landings had to be a bear; how would you keep them going in a straight line? Some sort of gyro-stabilization devices?

And I'm hoping there was some sort of redundancy in the radio gear.

Maybe my concerns are fueled by my own dismal attempts at flying radio-controlled model airplanes (none survived ).

[Holedigger]

I know some of the drones even back into WWII had TV cameras that transmitted back to the controllers......I imagine that would be helpful in flying remotely! Instrumentation information was also transmitted so the controller knew what state the aircraft was in.

[jdvoss]

You may wish to obtain the book "Shoot Only at the Red Airplane" by Bill Coons, 132 pgs. ISBN 978-1-4303-0715-0. Mr Coons served in the USN in the mid to late 40's and was assigned to VU-7A ( a drone sqdn) at NAS Santa Ana, CA. You will find this book most informative...

[SHAEF1944]

Approximately 25 high-time Fortresses (mainly B-17Fs) were converted into radio-controlled flying bombs under the designation BQ-7. They were designed to be used against German V-1 missile sites, submarine pens or deep fortifications that had resisted conventional bombing.

The name of the USAAF officer who first thought of the idea of using war-weary B-17s as flying bombs has been lost to history, but the plan was proposed to Maj. Gen. James Doolittle under the code name Operation Aphrodite, and he approved it on June 26, 1944.

Responsibility for preparing and flying the drone aircraft was given to the 3rd Bombardment Division, which passed the job down to the 388th Bombardment Group, which in turn passed responsibility down to the 562nd Squadron based at Honington in Suffolk.

The B-17s selected for the project were stripped of their normal military equipment and packed with up to 9 tons of explosives. Each pilotless bomber was fitted with a radio-controlled flight system known as Double-Azon and a television camera was placed on the flight deck so that an image of the main instrument panel could be sent back to a controlling aircraft.

A second TV camera was installed inside the Plexiglas nose which gave a television monitor in the controlling aircraft a view of the ground so that the robot machine could be directed onto the target.




Azon was originally for radio-controlled bombs:





Each aircraft had three antennas mounted beneath its tail section for control purposes. One transmitted a signal on 475 cycles for left deflection, one on 3,000 cycles for right deflection, and the third at 30-40 cycles to activate the smoke generating system. All three frequencies were changed periodically to prevent jamming by enemy radio monitoring crews.

The transmitter was a standard Signal Corps type used in controlling model planes, ships, tanks, and drones. With a power output of 25-watts, the unit was capable of sending on 15 different frequencies. This equipment weighed 33 pounds, and modification to the B-24, for accommodating it, amounted to an additional 25 pounds.

Dont have any stuff on the 1950's control, but it woulda have to be advanced from this.

[SHAEF1944]

Found this on an early TV website..... camera and misc. used on the glide bombs

http://www.earlytelevision.org/military_tv.html

[J. Armstrong]

I lived near Johnsville also, although I never saw the Red Corsairs you speak of. I would question whether they were drones, as I doubt the Navy would fly them in such a populated region - I can just see one getting loose and "visiting" Philadelphia !!!
Are there other possible explanations for the red a/c ?

[Dave Downs]

Approximately 25 high-time Fortresses (mainly B-17Fs) The name of the USAAF officer who first thought of the idea of using war-weary B-17s as flying bombs has been lost to history, but the plan was proposed to Maj. Gen. James Doolittle under the code name Operation Aphrodite, and he approved it on June 26, 1944.

IIRC, the Aphrodite aircraft had an on-board, live pilot who took-off and flew the plane to altitude, then the radio pilot in a chase plane would take over, and the pilot would then egress the aircraft by parachute. President JFK's older brother was one of the pilots assigned to this duty, and lost his life when the plane (B-24?) he was in exploded in-flight.

[Dave Downs]

I lived near Johnsville also, although I never saw the Red Corsairs you speak of. I would question whether they were drones, as I doubt the Navy would fly them in such a populated region - I can just see one getting loose and "visiting" Philadelphia !!!
Are there other possible explanations for the red a/c ?

I definately saw them, in flight, and often low - I was out in what was then wide open farm country. There is a good posibility they had a pilot in them and were being flight tested with a safety pilot or being ferried in or out of Johnsville for equipment installation/maintainence.

A lot of 'black' stuff went on at Johnsville............

[jdvoss]

Here's a photo of a F6F-5K that was soon to become a drone. The aircraft is no doubt painted red as you can see the blue in the surround of the natl insignia is a much darker color.
[img][img]http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr240/jdvoss/hrF6F5K.jpg[/img][/img]

[Tailspin Turtle]

[51fixer]

IIRC the aircraft could be flown by conventional mode to position them.
I know the F-86 drones did this.
Since Johnsville was a development center I suppose they could have been involved in developing the technology and even could have done the mods and then flew them to where they would have been used.
Rich