UAVs from 1849-2000s

well done Z

great well writen thread , I look forward to updates when you get the time .

many thanks

snoopyuk

reply to post by Zaphod58


Wow, a whole bunch of interesting stuff I did not know. This is one of the things that, for me, defines what ATS is all about. Especially considering how ATS got started in the first place: discussing reptilians. Thanks Zaphod. You're a cool dude to have around Just kidding about the reptilians hehe...

reply to post by Zaphod58


Excellent thread and info, Zaphod. Well done. There appears to be one missing from your OP in the WW2 section, the Miles Hoopla, here is a post I made about it several years back. Your OP does answer the question I posed in the title " Have I found the worlds first UCAV."

Ie no. Lol

waynos


.......The one I am posting tonight about though is something I think must surely rank as the worlds first genuine UCAV project, although the acronym did not exist of course. It is not even a 'current' project in the 1955 issue which illustrates it and it merits barely a couple of lines under the photo shown.

It is called the Miles Hoopla and dates from 1941-43. was a remotely piloted, via radio control, light aircraft capable of carrying a semi-conformal 1,000lb bomb, which arrangement itself was years ahead of its time. It looked like an overscale model aircraft and was powered by a DH Gypsy Queen engine, like the Tiger Moth amongst many others.

This qualifies as a UCAV, I believe, by dint of the fact that it was not a 'flying bomb' like the V-1 but was intended to drop its load and return for re-use. A remarkably prescient concept, it obviously suffered from the lack of any accurate means of actually deliveringh the bomb in those days but I still think the fact that such a concept was seriously considered to the point of building a test vehicle was remarkable.

I don't have any more information so if anyone has anything about it please post, or even similar UCAV concepts from before the term was invented

Miles 'Hoopla', 1943

reply to post by Zaphod58


www.youtube.com...

check this out...look how small this dragonfly drone is

super thread Zaph!
Your hard work is obvious.
S+F

reply to post by waynos


Thanks for that one. I'm going to try to update and add this weekend, but we're on a speed run to Washington, so I'm not sure what my schedule will look like.

Excellent thread Mr Beeblebrox, I never realized how long UAV's have been in R&D.

Here's another one that was scrapped, dubbed the 'darkstar'.

The Tier III Minus UAV, known by the nickname DarkStar, was one of two high altitude endurance UAVs being developed for the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) joint UAV program office.

The Department of Defense canceled the Dark Star UAV program in February 1999 due to budget cuts. Given a trade-off between stealth and range, the Air Force chose the range of Global Hawk over Darkstar's stealth.

fas.org

Zaphod58

D-21
In 1965, Lockheed Martin flew the D-21. Designed to be stealthy and fast, it was capable of Mach 4 flight. It was originally supposed to be launched from the back of an A-12, redesignated the M-21 (the M-21 was a two seat version of the A-12). During one of the launches from the M-21 the D-21 crashed back into the carrier aircraft, causing it to break apart in flight. The crew was able to get out, but the launch control officer (Ray Torick) drowned after apparently opening his helmet too soon, after landing in the ocean.
After that all D-21 launches were to be performed by a B-52 carrier aircraft, and a rocket booster was added to accelerate the aircraft. After a troubled test phase, the D-21 went operational. Four missions were attempted over China, with all four being failures. The first aircraft failed to turn, and continued over the Soviet Union, where it eventually crashed. The second turned, but had a partial failure of the hatch (it was supposed to jettison the hatch, allowing the camera and film to be recovered). The third jettisoned the hatch, but the airborne recovery failed, and the destroyer that was going to recover it from the water hit it, causing it to sink. The final flight crashed inside China.

Very Similar to the G.I. Joe Cobra Night Raven with scout plane module.

COBRA NIGHT RAVEN S³P description and pics at Yo Joe
www.yojoe.com/vehicles/86/nightraven/
www.yojoe.com...

reply to post by Thecakeisalie


That's one that I'm eventually getting to. If we don't get a reload, then I'll try to do an update on Sunday.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Is it just me, or does the RQ-14 Dragon Eye look remarkably similar to the ancient golden mayan 'stylised animal' or model aircraft designs.

Especially the tail section of German reconstructions of these ancient Mayan models, which flew very well when tested.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Nice thread. I've been wondering for some time though if anyone has thought of marketing some of the later UAV's as civilian piloted aircraft. I know that some of them would be a hit with the sport flying crowd.

I've poked around some, but haven't seen any.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Not for years at best. They haven't even established the rules to allow the military to fly them outside an MOA. Right now when a Global Hawk departs Beale it has to have a T-38 in formation until it clears US airspace.

Fantastic thread, Zaph! Star and Flag for it, wish I could give more than that.

OK...i suppose it IS just me after all...oh to be unique.

Zaphod58

BQ series
In 1941, the US began development of the BQ series of aircraft. There were several aircraft used, including the TDR-1 (XBQ-4), the AT-21 jet developed by Fairchild, and the two most successful (using the term loosely), the unmanned B-17 and B-24 (BQ-7 and BQ-8 respectively).
Under the Aphrodite program, 25 B-17s were converted to BQ-7 aircraft. They were filled with 18,000 pounds of Torpex explosives, and were taken off under the command of a pilot and copilot, who would bail out when the aircraft was airborne, turning control over to the command aircraft. The aircraft were to attack hardened German targets, but yielded poor results, with one crashing on British soil, and one losing radio communications with the control aircraft.
The B-24, would also be taken off by two pilots, before being turned over to the control aircraft, but was filled with 25,000 pounds of Torpex. It was on one of these missions that Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, brother to John F. Kennedy, and Lieutenant Willford J. Willey were killed, when their B-24 exploded in midair after arming the Torpex explosives. The Aphrodite program was cancelled shortly after, due to poor results.

Thanks for the cool thread!

I found the video of one of the BQ-7 B-17's in testing.

Crashing BQ-7 test

It is interesting to hear the different ways they used to describe thing back in the day. "The Weary Willy program" and "Super Suicide Attack Plane without the expenditure of personnel"...priceless.

VERY COOL! Thanks for the work you put in.
Will be checking in for updates, looking forward to those.

X

Sorry guys, I planned to update this past weekend, but work caught up and I haven't had the time. I should have time tomorrow for at least a short update, if not as soon as I can get a slow load I'll work on it. I haven't forgotten this thread, honest.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Nice work Zaph! Was a very interesting read


Are you planning on doing one on blackswift, I mean dark star