Was this the FPV drone of the 1940s?
>>61583397According to bazooka charlie
No, the actual FPV drones werehttps://youtu.be/Wy2MPqpmN2o?si=R6qJGx5u23gJcpwe
If you mean tactically then there was nothing filling that role, if you mean technologically then pic related would be the closest.
>>61584479>technologically then pic related would be the closest.See >>61584468https://youtu.be/CwS669Ipgwc?si=lF-KPnCrveWxG2eL
>>61584468>>61584490Interesting, did they ever see combat?
>>61584509Very limited but with success. Unfortunately between politics and the Army/Navy preference for mass bombing over precision strikes it was an avenue abandoned soon after their combat trials
>>61583397>Pigeon-Guided Missilehttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/yM-aUKcStXU
>>61584509Yep, one T&E squadron deployed w/ 50 drones to the south pacific in 1944. Several months of preparatory fieldwork (which was when the film was produced) was followed by an operational period that fall against Japanese garrisons around Bougainville and Rabaul.It's a bit of a special case too. The TDR-1 could sortie (and theoretically land) entirely under radio control whereas contemporaries like Aphrodite or Mistel used a pilot for takeoff and midcourse guidance. Even more advanced was it's strike capability: rather than a warhead, it had hardpoints for standard bombs or torpedoes which could be dropped independently. This was used a few times to bomb artillery positions before expending the drone itself - though state of the art, the control hardware (picrel) still had severe limitations. Under field conditions it was decided that a final FPV attack was a safer option than trying to guide 'em home for a landing.
>>61584779Dug up a bigger version, this example fitted with a more advanced RCA CRV-46ABP television for the WSO. The telephone dial could transmit preset commands such as weapons arm/release, while the tiny screen on the right was a radar plot to assist in tracking the drone relative to the Avenger.
