One of the first experiments in the United States with remotely-controlled aerial warfare wasn’t in the ’90s or ’00s: It was back in World War II.
During the London Disarmament Conference in 1935, Admiral William Standley, then Chief of Naval Operations, learned of the United Kingdom’s experiments with remotely-powered aircraft like the DH82B Queen Bee. Impressed with the Queen Bee’s capabilities, Standley tapped Lieutenant Commander Delmar Fahrney when he returned to the states to convert a series of nine “requirements” into a fully operational unmanned aerial combat vehicle (UCAV). Fahrney coined the term “drone” in honor of the Queen Bee.
Shortly thereafter, testing began. Initially, the Navy made use of radio technology to guide unmanned vehicles. By 1941, however, RCA had developed a television transmitter rig and the Naval Research Laboratory a radar guidance system, both of which allowed the drones to be more accurate and to be usable in difficult conditions. Radio technology fell by the wayside.
Thus, the TDN-1 (built by the Naval Aircraft Factory) and TDR-1 (built by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation) were born. Both had radar and television sensors, although the TDR-1 was slightly “simpler” and less expensive. Drones busted into the Pacific Theater in March 1944.
Here’s the TDN-1 being tested on the Great Lakes in the midwest:
And here’s the TDR-1 conducting tests in the South Pacific:
Although the Navy’s early experiment with UCAVs was successful, no one was terribly impressed with the results. The Boston Globe’s earlier prediction, on the heels of the development of the Autodrome a few decades earlier, that drones would “make war so terrible, that the national troubles of the future will be settled by arbitration” had—and, indeed, has—yet to be fulfilled.
