Hellcat Drones

[Chris Brame]

That must be at Ontario. Note Piccadilly Lilly in the background of the second photo, as well as Lockheed 10 N4963C on the far left, and you can just see the long-gone ( ) AT-10 over the spine of the Hellcat.

Have any photos of the Air Zoo's F6F-5K 79683 ever been found showing it in drone colors?

[martin_sam_2000]

The Hellcat NOLO drones in California were flown out of Pt. Mugu and China Lake. Pt. Mugu is now Naval Base Ventura County. San Nicolas Island is part of Pt Mugu's sea range. Pt. Mugu used to have a small museum on base, but I can't find a listing for it anymore. China Lake has a large museum. Visiting their website, they sell a DVD called Secret City that appears to cover the Hellcat drone program. The also sell a book titled Arming the Fleet that sounds promising. http://www.chinalakemuseum.org/index.htm. I imagine the museum itself could provide a lot of information on the Hellcat drone program.

And, of course, The Mickey Mouse Club visited China Lake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiuCL0mKCiM The sacrifice starts at 1:45.

working on it now..Can't seem to find any hellcats but I did find what looks like an F-4, UH-1 and AH-1.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@33.258993,- ... a=!3m1!1e3

Seab

[jdvoss]

The only publication that I have ever found on the subject of drones is "Shoot Only at the Red Airplane" by Bill Coons. It was published in 2007 (140 pp.) and is available at Amazon for under $20.00. Mr. Coons was assigned to VU-7a based at NAS Santa Ana, CA (ca. 1946) where both F6F Hellcat and SO3C Seagulls drone aircraft were based. The actual flight operations were made with an accompanying SNB director aircraft and the actual launch of the drones was made from nearby NOLF Palisades.

See Paul Freemans abandoned airfield site( http://www.airfields-freeman.com ) for both NAS Santa Ana and OLF Palisades. Click on California, Orange County Central.

JDV

http://www.fuselagecodes.com

[Noha307]

You guys know that NASM's Hellcat was a drone, right?

As a matter of fact, according to their write-up on the plane "it was painted red with a pink tail that carried the number 14" – meaning it's actually in some of the previous pictures in this thread!

Check out pages 9 & 10 of Restoring Museum Aircraft by Robert Mikesh for a few paragraphs on this aircraft's restoration and another picture.

[Tailspin Turtle]

Anyone done much research on these?

TIA
Dave

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/11/f6f-drones.html

[quemerford]

Some disparate threads out there, but this has the makings of a book! Anyone?