Embarassed Hellcats

[Jack Cook]

BUMP for mgawa

[Mgawa]

BUMP for mgawa

Just few minutes ago I have place topic regard to drones... I did not noted this one....

Sorry Jack and thank you for this material

[tom d. friedman]

Interesting historical note about those drones - homebuilt airplane designer John Dyke of Dyke Delta fame was very involved in the design and construction of the control systems used in those drones. According to John, a few were even loaded with explosives and flown into ground targets during the Korean War.







Zack

nice pics, please tell more about explosive loaded hellcat drones used tactically in korea!!

[Mgawa]

Did any of you know more about this airplanes and is any more images available?

[tex-fan]

i went to www.google.com
and due north of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake main airport you'll find what looks like a salt lake with some various airplanes. two of them are "RED" . could these be a couple of these Hellcats still be sitting out there?

[Tailspin Turtle]

F6F Drones

The F6F drones were initially developed at the Naval Air Development Unit at Johnsville, Pennsylvania. At least one of these aircraft was painted a yellow-orange overall and another may have been an odd shade of blue. The extended tail wheel was a feature of these aircraft, which were recoverable.

There appear to have been at least three programs that utilized these drones. The first was a fleet of aircraft that were used to sample radioactivity at Operations Crossroads in 1946. These aircraft were painted red with different color empennages, apparently to denote radio frequency.

Another set was used in the Korean War as a crude guided missile. There were six missions launched from Boxer between 28 August and 2 September 1952 against various bridges, tunnels and power plants. Guided Missile Unit 90 had been formed at Naval Air Development Unit at Johnsville, Pennsylvania. AD-2Qs were used as controllers. The F6Fs carried a pod under the right wing with a TV camera in for targeting. A TV transmitter was mounted on the upper surface of the right wing above the pod.

The attack drone F6Fs were overall glossy sea blue with standard markings. They were marked V1 through V6 on the cowling. Note that these aircraft did not have the extended tail wheel (they weren’t coming back) or tail fins on the bomb (it wasn’t going to be dropped). Of the six missions, there was one hit, one abort (then what?) and four misses.

The third major use was at China Lake and Point Mugu as target aircraft. This appears to have been the requirement that generated “tip tanks” and large wing tip fairings that contained flares to simulate a jet exhaust, and therefore be of appropriate interest to the heat-seeking Sidewinder missile being developed…

China Lake F6Fs were insignia red? Point Mugu F6Fs were repainted in day-glo?

In December 1952, an XAAM-2 Sparrow missile was used to intercept and destroy an F6F in a Point Mugu test, supposedly the first successful air-to-air guided missile kill. In September 1953, the Sidewinder made its first successful interception at China Lake, again destroying the F6F target.

Initial Drone Development

Korean attack drones (note TV transmitter antenna on the starboard wing)

Target Drone with wing-tip flare pods


Additions and corrections would be appreciated.

Last edited by Tailspin Turtle on Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Tailspin Turtle]

A little known fact is that they were actually painted baby blue, only the color shift made them look red in Jack's slides.

How'd you know that?

[Matt Gunsch]

Sorry, but the most embarassed Hellcat has to be the Hellcat at Lone star. At least the others wore those colors in service.

[m50a1ontos]

i went to www.google.com
and due north of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake main airport you'll find what looks like a salt lake with some various airplanes. two of them are "RED" . could these be a couple of these Hellcats still be sitting out there?

Those are probably 40' sea containers set up to look like "SCUD launchers". Old used sea-vans are far cheaper to use as targets than aircraft.

For a visual refrence. Pan to the right, where you see those two trenches dug into the lake bed. Look just off the left end of the bottom trench and you'll see an "aircraft shape". That's the burned out remains of a B-29. Those red things are far bigger that an F6F, which is waaaay smaller than a B-29.

Now a few years ago, there were the blasted remains of several F6F-5K Drones scatterd around the ranges and some were just off the main range road. The biggest piece I ever saw was an engine and part of the cockpit and one whole aircraft shaped puddle of aluminum and twisted junk. The tail section that was in the range junk pile got scrapped out years ago (still kicking myself for not grabbing the rudder/tail with the BUNO stencilled on it)

Last edited by m50a1ontos on Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mgawa]

This one is also interesting:



Any additional info about the unit and badge on fuselage?

[tex-fan]

hey m50a1ontos
thanks, i've been wondering for a while now

[jdvoss]

Here is a photo of a NAS Johnsville F6F-5K Drone Hellcat that you may find of interest. The base color of the aircraft may be red or possibly the ligher blue mentioned in one of the above posted threads. There is a great book called "Shoot only at the Red Airplane" by Bill Coons that deals with the Navy drone development. ISBN 978-1-4303-0715-0 . Mr Coons was assigned to VU-7 (Drone Sqdn) at NAS Santa Ana California immedaitely following WWII. The drones were flown to nearby OLF Palisades (in Newport Beach area) for launching purposes. The controller aircaft were Beech JRB'S with an added cupola. Also, check out Freemans abandoned airfield site for the above mentioned airfields in Orange County. Interesting photos

[img][img]http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr240/jdvoss/hrF6F5K.jpg[/img][/img]

[Dan K]

Anyone know how many Hellcats flying today were drones at one point?

1. Probably none. They were target drones after all. A bunch were shot down over China Lake and the wreckage of some of them have been recovered. DOn't know that any will be flying again soon though.

Was bored, so I checked the registry.

Of the current fliers, two are former drones: BuNo 80141 with The Fighter Collection and 94473 with the Palm Springs Air Museum. One detail about the latter is that it was apparently displayed in a red drone scheme back in the late '60s when the Air Museum was in Ontario, CA.

Seven more survivors were also drones:

41834 on display at Udvar-Hazy
77722 still on weathervane display at Andrews
79192 with the New England Air Museum
79593 on the USS Yorktown (Patriots' Point in SC)
79683 on display at Kalamazoo
79863 (restoration to flight?)
94263 on display at Cradle of Aviation Museum

(And then there were all those bits that were collected in that shipping yard in Green Bay a few years back, only to drop off the radar...)

[Mgawa]

jdvoss maybe your image show this machine in a little strange shade of red?



Also not visible on black and white image but maybe it have anti glare black on nose?

[jdvoss]

The red paint on the above photo appears to be quite fresh in application. Whereas the B&W photo of the NAS Johnsville aircraft shows the paint to be a bit weathered.

I've attached the link from Paul Freemans abandoned airfields website for NOLF Palisades which you might find of interest.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Air ... #palisades