Lady in Red (F6F drone)
Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:59 am
Hi gang
just stumbled accross this photo from the early 60's and wanted to share it with you
Q: How long were these F6F-5K drones in use ? This one's from VU-3
Martin
just stumbled accross this photo from the early 60's and wanted to share it with you
Q: How long were these F6F-5K drones in use ? This one's from VU-3
Martin
Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:22 am
Your pic reminded me of a very funny related story;
From www.thexhunters.com
The Battle of Palmdale
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the morning of 16 August 1956, Navy personnel at Point Mugu prepared an F6F-5K for its final mission. The aircraft had been painted overall high-visibility red. Red and yellow camera pods were mounted on the wingtips. Radio remote control systems were checked, and the Hellcat took off at 11:34 a.m., climbing out over the Pacific Ocean. As ground controllers attempted to maneuver the drone toward the target area, it became apparent that it was not responding to radio commands. They had a runaway.
Ahead of the unguided drone lay thousands of square miles of ocean into which it could crash. Instead, the old Hellcat made a graceful climbing turn to the southeast, toward the city of Los Angeles. With the threat of a runaway aircraft approaching a major metropolitan area, the Navy called for help.
Five miles north of NAS Point Mugu, two F-89D Scorpion twin-jet interceptors of the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were scrambled from Oxnard Air Force Base. The crews were ordered to shoot down the rogue drone before it could cause any harm. Armed with wingtip-mounted rocket pods and no cannon, the Scorpion was typical of the Cold War approach to countering the "Red Menace." Each pod contained 52 Mighty Mouse 2.75-inch rockets. Salvo-launched, the Mighty Mouse did not have to have precision guidance. Large numbers of rockets would be fired into approaching Soviet bomber formations to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Today, they would be used against a different kind of red menace.
At Oxnard AFB, 1Lt. Hans Einstein and his radar observer, 1Lt. C. D. Murray, leapt into their sleek F-89D. Simultaneously, 1Lt. Richard Hurliman and 1Lt. Walter Hale climbed into a second aircraft. The interceptors roared south after their target. The hunt was on.
Einstein and Hurliman caught up with the Hellcat at 30,000 feet, northeast of Los Angeles. It turned southwest, crossing over the city, then headed northwest. As the Hellcat circled lazily over Santa Paula, the interceptor crews waited impatiently. As soon as it passed over an unpopulated area, they would fire their rockets.
The interceptor crews discussed their options. There were two methods of attack using the fire control system, from a wings level attitude or while in a turn. Since the drone was almost continuously turning, they selected the second mode of attack. In repeated attempts, the rockets failed to fire during these maneuvers. This was later traced to a design fault.
The drone turned northeast, passing Fillmore and Frazier Park. It appeared to be heading toward the sparsely populated western end of the Antelope Valley. Suddenly, it turned southeast toward Los Angeles again. Time seemed to be running out. Einstein and Hurliman decided to abandon the automatic modes, and fire manually. Although the aircraft had been delivered with gun sights, they had been removed a month earlier. After all, why would a pilot need a gun sight to fire unguided rockets with an automatic fire control system?
The interceptors made their first attack run as the Hellcat crossed the mountains near Castaic. Murray and Hale set their intervalometers to "ripple fire" the rockets in three salvos. The first crew lined up their target and fired, missing their target completely. The second interceptor unleashed a salvo that passed just below the drone. Rockets blazed through the sky and then plunged earthward to spark brush fires seven miles north of Castaic. They decimated 150 acres above the old Ridge Route near Bouquet Canyon.
A second salvo from the two jets also missed the drone, raining rockets near the town of Newhall. One bounced across the ground, leaving a string of fires in its wake between the Oak of the Golden Dream Park and the Placerita Canyon oilfield. The fires ignited several oil sumps and burned 100 acres of brush. For a while the blazes raged out of control, threatening the nearby Bermite Powder Company explosives plant. The rockets also ignited a fire in the vicinity of Soledad Canyon, west of Mt. Gleason, burning over 350 acres of heavy brush.
Meanwhile, the errant drone meandered north toward Palmdale. The Scorpion crews readjusted their intervalometers and each fired a final salvo, expending their remaining rockets. Again, the obsolete, unpiloted, unguided, unarmed, propeller-driven drone evaded the state-of-the-art jet interceptors. In all, the jet crews fired 208 rockets without scoring a single hit.
The afternoon calm was shattered as Mighty Mouse rockets fell on downtown Palmdale. Edna Carlson was at home with her six-year-old son William when a chunk of shrapnel burst through her front window, bounced off the ceiling, pierced a wall, and finally came to rest in a pantry cupboard. Another fragment passed through J. R. Hingle's garage and home, nearly hitting Mrs. Lilly Willingham as she sat on the couch. A Leona Valley teenager, Larry Kempton, was driving west on Palmdale Boulevard with his mother in the passenger seat when a rocket exploded on the street in front of him. Fragments blew out his left front tire, and put numerous holes in the radiator, hood, windshield, and even the firewall. Miraculously, no one was injured by any of the falling rockets. Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams later recovered 13 duds in the vicinity of Palmdale. It took 500 firefighters two days to bring the brushfires under control.
Oblivious to the destruction in its wake, the drone passed over the town. Its engine sputtered and died as the fuel supply dwindled. The red Hellcat descended in a loose spiral toward an unpopulated patch of desert eight miles east of Palmdale Airport. Just before impact, the drone sliced through a set of three Southern California Edison power lines along an unpaved section of Avenue P. The camera pod on the airplane's right wingtip dug into the sand and the Hellcat cartwheeled and disintegrated. There was no fire.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards
Robbie
From www.thexhunters.com
The Battle of Palmdale
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the morning of 16 August 1956, Navy personnel at Point Mugu prepared an F6F-5K for its final mission. The aircraft had been painted overall high-visibility red. Red and yellow camera pods were mounted on the wingtips. Radio remote control systems were checked, and the Hellcat took off at 11:34 a.m., climbing out over the Pacific Ocean. As ground controllers attempted to maneuver the drone toward the target area, it became apparent that it was not responding to radio commands. They had a runaway.
Ahead of the unguided drone lay thousands of square miles of ocean into which it could crash. Instead, the old Hellcat made a graceful climbing turn to the southeast, toward the city of Los Angeles. With the threat of a runaway aircraft approaching a major metropolitan area, the Navy called for help.
Five miles north of NAS Point Mugu, two F-89D Scorpion twin-jet interceptors of the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were scrambled from Oxnard Air Force Base. The crews were ordered to shoot down the rogue drone before it could cause any harm. Armed with wingtip-mounted rocket pods and no cannon, the Scorpion was typical of the Cold War approach to countering the "Red Menace." Each pod contained 52 Mighty Mouse 2.75-inch rockets. Salvo-launched, the Mighty Mouse did not have to have precision guidance. Large numbers of rockets would be fired into approaching Soviet bomber formations to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Today, they would be used against a different kind of red menace.
At Oxnard AFB, 1Lt. Hans Einstein and his radar observer, 1Lt. C. D. Murray, leapt into their sleek F-89D. Simultaneously, 1Lt. Richard Hurliman and 1Lt. Walter Hale climbed into a second aircraft. The interceptors roared south after their target. The hunt was on.
Einstein and Hurliman caught up with the Hellcat at 30,000 feet, northeast of Los Angeles. It turned southwest, crossing over the city, then headed northwest. As the Hellcat circled lazily over Santa Paula, the interceptor crews waited impatiently. As soon as it passed over an unpopulated area, they would fire their rockets.
The interceptor crews discussed their options. There were two methods of attack using the fire control system, from a wings level attitude or while in a turn. Since the drone was almost continuously turning, they selected the second mode of attack. In repeated attempts, the rockets failed to fire during these maneuvers. This was later traced to a design fault.
The drone turned northeast, passing Fillmore and Frazier Park. It appeared to be heading toward the sparsely populated western end of the Antelope Valley. Suddenly, it turned southeast toward Los Angeles again. Time seemed to be running out. Einstein and Hurliman decided to abandon the automatic modes, and fire manually. Although the aircraft had been delivered with gun sights, they had been removed a month earlier. After all, why would a pilot need a gun sight to fire unguided rockets with an automatic fire control system?
The interceptors made their first attack run as the Hellcat crossed the mountains near Castaic. Murray and Hale set their intervalometers to "ripple fire" the rockets in three salvos. The first crew lined up their target and fired, missing their target completely. The second interceptor unleashed a salvo that passed just below the drone. Rockets blazed through the sky and then plunged earthward to spark brush fires seven miles north of Castaic. They decimated 150 acres above the old Ridge Route near Bouquet Canyon.
A second salvo from the two jets also missed the drone, raining rockets near the town of Newhall. One bounced across the ground, leaving a string of fires in its wake between the Oak of the Golden Dream Park and the Placerita Canyon oilfield. The fires ignited several oil sumps and burned 100 acres of brush. For a while the blazes raged out of control, threatening the nearby Bermite Powder Company explosives plant. The rockets also ignited a fire in the vicinity of Soledad Canyon, west of Mt. Gleason, burning over 350 acres of heavy brush.
Meanwhile, the errant drone meandered north toward Palmdale. The Scorpion crews readjusted their intervalometers and each fired a final salvo, expending their remaining rockets. Again, the obsolete, unpiloted, unguided, unarmed, propeller-driven drone evaded the state-of-the-art jet interceptors. In all, the jet crews fired 208 rockets without scoring a single hit.
The afternoon calm was shattered as Mighty Mouse rockets fell on downtown Palmdale. Edna Carlson was at home with her six-year-old son William when a chunk of shrapnel burst through her front window, bounced off the ceiling, pierced a wall, and finally came to rest in a pantry cupboard. Another fragment passed through J. R. Hingle's garage and home, nearly hitting Mrs. Lilly Willingham as she sat on the couch. A Leona Valley teenager, Larry Kempton, was driving west on Palmdale Boulevard with his mother in the passenger seat when a rocket exploded on the street in front of him. Fragments blew out his left front tire, and put numerous holes in the radiator, hood, windshield, and even the firewall. Miraculously, no one was injured by any of the falling rockets. Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams later recovered 13 duds in the vicinity of Palmdale. It took 500 firefighters two days to bring the brushfires under control.
Oblivious to the destruction in its wake, the drone passed over the town. Its engine sputtered and died as the fuel supply dwindled. The red Hellcat descended in a loose spiral toward an unpopulated patch of desert eight miles east of Palmdale Airport. Just before impact, the drone sliced through a set of three Southern California Edison power lines along an unpaved section of Avenue P. The camera pod on the airplane's right wingtip dug into the sand and the Hellcat cartwheeled and disintegrated. There was no fire.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards
Robbie
Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:00 am
Great story...I bet it was a tough one for the Air Force to live down...Tom
Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:37 pm
Santa Cruz Island?
Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:38 pm
Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:38 pm
Rob, I have seen reference to a San Nicholas Island as being the crash site for a few of the Hellcat drones.
Robbie
Robbie
Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:48 pm
Ah yes...the infamous "Battle of Palmdale"....
Lots of Hellcats crashed on Navy property...any that are left....well...they're on Navy property so we all know what THAT means.
Lots of Hellcats crashed on Navy property...any that are left....well...they're on Navy property so we all know what THAT means.
Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:53 pm
The F6F at the New England Air Museum was a Navy Drone that had a gear up landing. It was restored over many years by Larry Webster and other musuem volunteers.
Jerry
http://www.neam.org/images/hellcat2_lg.jpg
Jerry
http://www.neam.org/images/hellcat2_lg.jpg
F6F
Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:51 pm
Correct me if I'm wrong. but isn't this the Air museum's F6F-5K in the colors in which they received it???
Also a couple of years ago, I was offered a large stockpile of recovered/salavge F6F drone pieces and parts. They were from about 4 airframes and were dug up from somewhere out west (he-he). Some looked in good shape and some had firedamage. I still have the 20 or so photos I was sent. As I remember they where in Cheese Head country (hint-hint).
Also a couple of years ago, I was offered a large stockpile of recovered/salavge F6F drone pieces and parts. They were from about 4 airframes and were dug up from somewhere out west (he-he). Some looked in good shape and some had firedamage. I still have the 20 or so photos I was sent. As I remember they where in Cheese Head country (hint-hint).
Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:58 pm
Jack;
NEAM's Hellcat is in the colors it wore when first assigned to a training squadron on the West Coast (1945 I believe). Later it went to the drone program and had the remains of the red paint on the airframe, though very weathered. It sat upside down on a palette after it's last "landing" and suffered exposure until aquired on loan from the Navy.
Jerry
NEAM's Hellcat is in the colors it wore when first assigned to a training squadron on the West Coast (1945 I believe). Later it went to the drone program and had the remains of the red paint on the airframe, though very weathered. It sat upside down on a palette after it's last "landing" and suffered exposure until aquired on loan from the Navy.
Jerry
??
Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:59 pm
NEAM's Hellcat is in the colors it wore when first assigned to a training squadron on the West Coast
I was referring to Martin's photo at the beginning of the thread.
I've seen some photos of the NEAM's F6 and it looks very nice!!
Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:51 pm
Also a couple of years ago, I was offered a large stockpile of recovered/salavge F6F drone pieces and parts. They were from about 4 airframes and were dug up from somewhere out west (he-he). Some looked in good shape and some had firedamage. I still have the 20 or so photos I was sent. As I remember they where in Cheese Head country (hint-hint).
Doh! Was that "hint-hint" aimed at me? You're correct, Jack: The Hellcat remains were located in the Green Bay, WI area, but are no longer there. From here on I'm "pleading the fifth," as I'm sure the folks involved would rather remain anonymous.
Doh! Was that "hint-hint" aimed at me? You're correct, Jack: The Hellcat remains were located in the Green Bay, WI area, but are no longer there. From here on I'm "pleading the fifth," as I'm sure the folks involved would rather remain anonymous.
F6
Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:31 pm
Hi Dan, It wasn't you but a warbird broker. When I asked if the lot came
with a clear title of ownership or should I worry about men in dark glasses and no sense of humor appearing at my door in the middle of the night asking questions while twirling handcuffs I never heard from him again. But, I did get all those nice pictures!
with a clear title of ownership or should I worry about men in dark glasses and no sense of humor appearing at my door in the middle of the night asking questions while twirling handcuffs I never heard from him again. But, I did get all those nice pictures!
Re: Lady in Red (F6F drone)
Wed Aug 11, 2010 5:50 pm
so this must still be on san nicolas: http://www.chinalakealumni.org/IMAGES/2 ... M_0108.jpg ?
Re: Lady in Red (F6F drone)
Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:28 pm
I remember reading an interesting account by someone tasked with recovering WW2 era wrecks from a California island. As I recall the best of the aircraft also an F6F was located near the nesting site of some kind of seagull or lizard and the Navy had to fly out a civilian enviromentalist to make a judgement on recovery. His decision was no. Wonder if that aircraft is still there?