The Radioplane BTT , known as RP-71 by the company, as WS-426/2 by the United States Navy , and as WS-462/2 by the US Air Force , is a family of target drones produced by the Radioplane Company (later a division of Northrop ).
20-562: In the post-World War II period, Radioplane followed up the success of the OQ-2 target drone with another very successful series of piston-powered target drones, what would become known as the Basic Training Target (BTT) family (the BTT designation wasn't created until the 1980s, but is used here as a convenient way to resolve the tangle of designations). The BTTs remained in service for the rest of
40-605: A radar signature of a larger aircraft. The radar reflectors (Luneburg lens) wasn't used by the US Navy as the air search radar interfered with the control signals. Thus the air search radar was not used. Launch was by RATO booster or bungee catapult, and recovery by parachute. A variant of the BTT designated the RP-71 , also known as the SD-1 Observer and later redesignated MQM-57 Falconer ,
60-620: A "Northrop Corporation" located in El Segundo, California , which produced several successful designs, including the Northrop Gamma and Northrop Delta . However, labor difficulties led to the dissolution of the corporation by Douglas in 1937, and the plant became the El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft . Northrop still sought his own company, and so in 1939 he established the "Northrop Corporation" in nearby Hawthorne, California ,
80-495: A little more than a half-hour, making it of limited use, about 1,500 Falconers were built and the type was used internationally with several different military forces, remaining in service into the 1970s. Over 76,000 BTT targets were built in all – more than any other type of aircraft – and the type was used by at least 18 nations. Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1966–67. General characteristics Performance OQ-2 Radioplane The Radioplane OQ-2
100-540: A long and fruitless lawsuit between the two companies. Northrop continued to build much of the F-18 fuselage and other systems after this period, but also returned to the original F-5 design with yet another new engine to produce the F-20 Tigershark as a low-cost aircraft. This garnered little interest in the market, and the project was dropped. In 1985, Northrop bought northrop.com, the sixth .com domain created. Based on
120-565: A major improvement over existing technology, and it did not go into production. Radioplane was bought out by Northrop in 1952 to become the Northrop Ventura Division, though it appears that the "Radioplane" name lingered on for a while. In 1963, when the US military adopted a standardized designation system, the surviving US Army BTT variants became MQM-33s and the KD2R-1, the only member of
140-723: A site located by co-founder Moye Stephens . The corporation ranked 100th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. It was there that the P-61 Black Widow night fighter , the B-35 and YB-49 experimental flying wing bombers, the F-89 Scorpion interceptor , the SM-62 Snark intercontinental cruise missile , and the F-5 Freedom Fighter economical jet fighter (and its derivative,
160-505: 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
180-666: Is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Jack Northrop founded 3 companies using his name. The first was the Avion Corporation in 1928, which was absorbed in 1929 by the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation as a subsidiary named "Northrop Aircraft Corporation" (and later became part of Boeing ). The parent company moved its operations to Kansas in 1931, and so Jack, along with Donald Douglas , established
200-629: 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. In 1940, the Army 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 . The OQ-2
220-474: The 20th century. The BTT family began life in the late 1940s, evolving through a series of refinements with the US Army designations of OQ-19A through OQ-19D , and the US Navy name of Quail with designated KD2R . Early models had a metal fuselage and wooden wings, but production standardized on an all-metal aircraft. Radioplane developed an experimental XQ-10 variant that was mostly made of plastic, but although evaluations went well, it wasn't considered
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#1732852639014240-847: The P-600, and eventually the YF-17 Cobra , which lost the competition to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon . Nevertheless, the YF-17 Cobra was modified with help from McDonnell Douglas to become the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in order to fill a similar lightweight design competition for the US Navy . Northrop intended to sell a de-navalized version as the F-18L, but the basic F-18A continued to outsell it, leading to
260-498: 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
280-521: The family still in Navy service, became the MQM-36 Shelduck . The MQM-36 was the most evolved of the BTT family, but retained the same general configuration as the other members. It was larger and more sophisticated than the first-generation OQ-2A series, and was powered by a more powerful flat-four four-stroke McCulloch piston engine with 72 hp (54 kW). The MQM-36 carried Luneburg lens radar enhancement devices in its wingtips that generated
300-513: The successful T-38 Talon trainer) were developed and built. The F-5 was so successful that Northrop spent much of the 1970s and 1980s attempting to duplicate its success with similar lightweight designs. Their first attempt to improve the F-5 was the N-300 , which featured much more powerful engines and moved the wing to a higher position to allow for increased ordnance that the higher power allowed. The N-300
320-487: 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. During the war Radioplane manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones. The company
340-510: Was bought by Northrop in 1952. General characteristics Performance Related lists This article contains material that originally came from the web article Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain. Northrop Corporation Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman . The company
360-464: Was built for battlefield reconnaissance, with first flight in 1955. The Falconer was similar in appearance to the Shelduck, but had a slightly longer and stockier fuselage. It had an autopilot system with radio-control backup, and could carry cameras, as well as illumination flares for night reconnaissance. Equipment was loaded through a hump in the back between the wings. Although it only had an endurance of
380-577: Was further developed into the P-530 with even larger engines, this time featuring a small amount of "bypass" ( turbofan ) to improve cooling and allow the engine bay to be lighter, as well as much more wing surface. The P-530 also included radar and other systems considered necessary on modern aircraft. When the Light Weight Fighter program was announced, the P-530 was stripped of much of its equipment to become
400-621: 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 . The OQ-2 was originally a 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
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