Evening star., 1945-12-13
Fighter Plane I akes0ff
And Lands With Only
Ghost at Controls
BY w. H. SHIPPEN, Jr.,
Star Stan Correspondent.

Dy W. ClN, -,
Star stafI Correspondent.
NAVAL AIR STATION, Atlantic
City, Dec. ia high-speed Hellcat
fighter, with only a radio ghost" for
pilot, took OF, maneuvered and
landed for the first time here yes
terday afternoon without the aid of
a standby pilot in the cockpit.
Navy experts who had toiled for
years to perfect the remote radio
control for heavy planes, admitted
that developments in electronics al
ready have relegated the Hellcat's
robot pilot to target and test planes,
while swifter, more accurate air
borne devices are perfected.
Another gadget removed from the
secrecy list because it, too, has been
consigned to the role of a drone was
demonstrated for news and camera
men, q small, 4O0-mile- hour let
robot released from a mother plane.
Instead OF chasing bomber squad
rons. as originally intended, the
robot will be used as target to test
antiaircraft guns of the fleet.
The inventions displayed in fight,
however, were entirely new to the
public. although, as one Navy man
put 1t, If they had been better
they'd never have been uncorked,
and If q little worse, they'd have
been kept in the closet"
The powerful "gnost" Hellcat.
which resembled something fresh
from Mars as it got under way
with no hand at the throttle, gave
spectators bad moment when the
propeller torque twisted it off the
runway just opposite them. If the
blind plane had swung left instead
of right, many aviation experts
would have been forced to take of
in hurry.
It required only five minutes,
however, to recheck the radio pilot
which, activated by control planes
flying overhead, operates throttle,
brakes, flaps, rudder. ailerons, ele-
vator, landing wheels and the like.
The big fighter in the 400-mile-an-
hour class then took off with its
empty cockpit, went through straf-
ing runs and power drives and landed
blind on a runway still lined with
enthusiasts who had a great deal
OF faith in the future.
Will Be Used for Target Practice.
The Navy plans to convert at
least 100 Hellcats into radio-control
ships to give the gunners of the
fleet target practice under condi-
tions approximating those presented
by kamikaze pilots and dive bombers
in the war.
Another use for the radio pilot will
be in testing new combat models
now approaching supersonic speeds
that add mysterious hazards to the
life expectancy of the test pilot
With it planes can be flown to the
point of disintegration and pulled
out Of power dives with a force that
would black out a superman, Navy
experts said.
Before the war ended, both Army
and Navy were experimenting with
radio : controlled heavy bombers
which were taken off by pilots who
parachuted after turning the con-
trolls over to escort planes. Sew
eral Of these blind bombers were
fiown into targets in France and the
Central Pacific with loads of ex-
plosives ranging up to is tons.
Robot Recovered.
The Navy's air-launched jet robot,
now too slow for a combat classifi-
cation, was supposed to have followed
bomber formations with a prox-
Unity fuse and several hundred
pounds Of explosives. In the tests
yesterday the robot was recovered by
parachute after circling the field at
high speed under control of planes
which had to cut corners to keep in
sight of the missile.
Primitive target drones of various
weights and speeds also were DEM
onstrated. Highly secret during the
war, some $4,000 of these radio
controlled planes were used to train
antiaircraft and aircraft gunners
soon to go into action against the
Nazis and Japs.
1t was indicated that controlled
missiles of the future may be rock
cts with radar homing devices and
fuses to explode their war heads
when they arrive in the general
area of their targets