The Radioplane OQ-2 was the first mass-produced
UAV or drone in the
United States, manufactured by the
Radioplane Company. A follow-on version, the OQ-3, became the most widely used
target drone in US service, with over 9,400 being built during
World War II.
History
The OQ-2 was originally a small
radio controlled aircraft model designed by Walter Righter. The design, along with its engine design, was purchased by actor
Reginald Denny, who had demonstrated another model to the
US Army in 1940. Calling the new design the RP-2, he demonstrated several updated versions to the Army as the RP-2, RP-3 and RP-4 in 1939.[1]
In 1940, the Army placed an order for 53 RP-4s (some sources refer to the RP-4 as OQ-1. but that designation was never assigned). This small order led to a much bigger 1941 order for the similar RP-5, which became the US Army OQ-2, the OQ meaning a "subscale target". The
US Navy also bought the drone, designating it TDD-1, for Target Drone, Denny, 1. Thousands were built, manufactured at the
Radioplane plant at the
Van Nuys Airport in the
Los Angeles metropolitan area.
It was at this factory on June 26, 1945, that Army photographer
David Conover saw a young woman assembler named Norma Jeane Dougherty, who he thought had potential as a model. She was photographed in the plant, which led to a screen test for Norma Jeane, who soon changed her name to
Marilyn Monroe.[2]
Description and variants
The OQ-2 is a simple aircraft, powered by a two-cylinder two-cycle piston engine, providing 6 horsepower (4.5 kW) and driving two contra-rotating propellers. The RC control system was built by Bendix. Launching was by catapult only and recovered by parachute should it survive the target practice. The landing gear was used only on the OQ-2 versions as sold to the Army to cushion the landing by parachute. None of the drones including the improved variants shipped to the Navy had landing gear. The subsequent variants delivered to the Army did not have landing gear.
The OQ-2 led to a series of similar but improved variants, with the OQ-3 / TDD-2 and OQ-14 / TDD-3 produced in quantity. A number of other target drones were built by Radioplane (including licensed contractors) and competing companies during the war, most of which never got beyond prototype stage, which accounts for the gaps in the designation sequence between "OQ-3" and "OQ-14".
After World War II ended, various experiment were made with Radioplane target drones. In one experiment in 1950, a derivative of the QQ-3 Radioplane drone was used to lay military communication wire.[3]
During the war Radioplane manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones. The company was bought by
Northrop in 1952.
Parker, Dana T. (2013), Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, Cypress, CA,
ISBN978-0-9897906-0-4{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
This article contains material that originally came from the web article
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.