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INTERSTATE TDR-1 ASSAULT DRONE, US NAVY SPECIAL TASK AIR GROUP ONE, SOLOMON ISLANDS, AUTUMN 1944
When deployed to the Pacific Theater of Operations in May 1944, the TDR-1 assault drones were still finished in their original scheme of dark sea blue over white. Aside from the usual national insignia, markings consisted of the occasional name on the nose and sometimes a tactical number painted on the tail. During combat operations, the forward cockpit windscreen was removed, and the cockpit was faired over with a plate, as seen here. After takeoff, the landing gear was dropped since the TDR-1 was on a one-way mission. The TBM-1 C Avenger control aircraft was modified with a large receiver/transmitted antenna under the rear fuselage contained in a dome-shaped cover.
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The US Navy had continued to experiment with larger radio-controlled aircraft as target drones in the late 1930s, and they were deployed with Utility Squadron Five (VJ-5) at Cape May, New Jersey, in March 1941 to train Navy antiaircraft gunners. The VJ-5 commander, Lt. Robert Jones, suggest using the drones as aerial rams to attack enemy fighters, eventually leading to the Navy’s Gorgon antiaircraft missile program. In the meantime, the Navy had been sponsoring the development of alternative flight control and navigation technologies including RCA’s television camera and the Navy Research Lab’s (NRL) radar guidance system. These offered the possibility of guiding the drone much more accurately than radio control, and in 1941 a program was started to develop “assault drones.” These could be used either as guided missiles, impacting against an enemy target, or as UCAVs, dropping a weapon and then returning to base. The Navy ordered the production of the first TDN-1 assault drones by the Naval Aircraft Factory in March 1942. Since the drone was expendable, the Navy wanted a simpler and less expensive type, which was manufactured by Interstate Aviation as the TDR-1. The Navy’s top secret Operation Option envisioned as many as 18 attack drone squadrons, 162 TBF Avenger control planes, and 1,000 assault drones. This ambitious scheme was whittled down considerably, and in March 1944, two Special Air Task Force (SATFOR) squadrons were dispatched to the Pacific Theater to demonstrate their capabilities. The TDR-1 were initially used as guided missiles at Bougainville in September 1944, flown into Japanese bunkers and gun positions. On October 19, 1944, they were used for the first time in a UCAV configuration, dropping bombs on targets on Ballale Island, south of Bougainville. They were not UCAV in the contemporary sense, since they lacked the capability to return safely to base. The Navy was not overly impressed with the results, although a similar concept was tested in the Korean War using radio-controlled Hellcat fighters as primitive missiles.
