Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
Edited by David Barth 20 May 2013.
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| Eddy's Kite. |
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| Sperry Torpedo. |
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| Kettering Torpedo. |
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| Queen Bee. |
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| Radio Plane. |
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Marilyn Monroe when she worked for Radio Plane
during WWII. |
This is a picture of Marilyn Monroe when she worked for Radio Plane during WWII in a plant at the Van Nuys Airport near Los Angeles. It was at this factory that in 1944 Army photographer David Conover saw a young woman assembler named Norma Jeane Dougherty, whom 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. [Photo and information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.]
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| WWII German Vengeance Weapon 1 (V1). |
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| B-24 Liberator Four-engine bomber. |
It was a four-engine plane, similar to this one, in which Joseph Kennedy, Jr., John F. Kennedy's older brother, was killed during WWII. Joseph Jr. and a copilot volunteered to fly the plane loaded with explosives. The plan was for the pilots to take off, get to altitude, set the autopilot, and then bail out. Something set off the explosives, and nothing of the plane or the two pilots was ever found.
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| Ryan Firebee. |
Ryan was the company that built Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis which he flew solo across the Atlantic in 1927. That company positioned itself as a designer and builder of UAVs.
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| The D1 was a secret reconnaissance UAV. |
The D1 was a secret reconnaissance UAV to be launched from an SR-71 Blackbird at supersonic speed. One was lost somewhere in China, and another ripped into the canopy of the launching Blackbird causing the CIA to cancel the program. By then satellites were beginning to provide imagery and signal intelligence (sigint) of other nations.
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| Israel Firebee, a modified Ryan Firebee. |
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| Ryan Spa. |
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| Scout reconnaissance UAV. |
It was small, inexpensive UAVs like the Scout that enabled Israel to defeat tank armies by use of superior reconnaissance.
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| Israel Pioneer. |
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| Israel Firebird. |
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| Pathfinder. |
The Pathfinder was a high-altitude, solar-powered aircraft designed to remain aloft for long periods of time to provide reconnaissance for long periods, unseen and unheard by persons on the ground.
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| Darkstar. |
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| Predator. |
The Predator is perhaps the most famous UAV because it was the first reconnaissance UAV to be equipped with Hellfire missiles to locate and shoot terrorists.
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| Global Hawk. |
The Global Hawk was computer-controlled to take off, fly at a high altitude of more than 60,000 feet, loiter over an area where reconnaissance was needed, stay aloft for more than 24 hours, and to land, all without any human intervention.
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Helios was another solar-powered,
high-flying reconnaissance platform. |
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| Blackwidow. |
The Blackwidow was one of the first miniature UAVs designed to provide close-in, battlefield reconnaissance. Its small size enabled soldiers to carry many of them, and the enemy would have difficulty targeting them. The future promised much smaller, insect-size UAVs that could navigate into a room unseen, land, collect intelligence, and either retransmit it or fly back to a safe location for an information download.