The Naval Aircraft Factory TDN was an early

unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...

- referred to at the time as an " assault drone" - developed by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Naval Aircraft Factory The Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) was established by the United States Navy in 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was created to help solve aircraft supply issues which faced the Navy Department upon the entry of the U.S. into World War I. ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Developed and tested during 1942 and 1943, the design proved moderately successful, but development of improved drones saw the TDN-1 relegated to second-line duties, and none were used in operational service.

Design and development

The development of the radar altimeter and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

in the early 1940s made remotely guided bomb- or torpedo-carrying aircraft a practical proposition.Parsch 2005 In January 1942, the Naval Aircraft Factory was instructed to initiate the development of such an aircraft, with a go-ahead for prototype construction being given in February. A production contract for 100 aircraft was issued in March, with John S. Kean being assigned as TDN-1 project manager, with the aircraft being designed to be capable of using either television or radar guidance. Constructed mainly from wood, the TDN-1 had a fixed tricycle landing gear, and could be fitted with a conventional cockpit in place of its guidance equipment for test flights.Goebel 2010 In an example of the use of companies traditionally uninvolved in the aviation industry to reduce interference with higher priority projects, production of the final thirty aircraft was licensed to the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

-based manufacturer of bowling balls and

billiard tables A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

Operational history

One hundred production TDN-1 aircraft were ordered in March 1942.Zaloga 2008, p.8. Despite being specifically designed to be a simple, low-performance aircraft, and despite proving promising in testing, the type was considered to be too complicated and expensive for use operationally. The improved

Interstate TDR The Interstate TDR was an early unmanned combat aerial vehicle — referred to at the time as an " assault drone" — developed by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation during the Second World War for use by the United States Navy ...

was selected for development as an alternative, the majority of TDN-1s being used in the test, liaison and training roles, with some being expended as aerial targets. The TDN-1 is often credited as the first US drone to take off from an aircraft carrier freely ( USS ''Sable''). An

Airspeed Queen Wasp The Airspeed AS.30 Queen Wasp was a British pilotless target aircraft built by Airspeed Limited at Portsmouth during the Second World War. Although intended for both Royal Air Force and Royal Navy use, the aircraft never went into series pro ...

had already been catapulted from HMS ''Pegasus'' in 1937.

Variants and operators

;XTDN-1 :Four prototype aircraft powered by

Franklin O-300 The Franklin O-300 (company designation 6AC-298) was an American air-cooled aircraft engine of the early 1940s. The engine was of six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed layout and displaced . The power output ranged between and depending on va ...

engines. ;TDN-1 :Production version of XTDN-1; 100 aircraft produced.Trimble 1990, p.267.

Specifications (TDN-1)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * ;Further reading * {{USN target drones TDR 1940s United States bomber aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States World War II guided missiles of the United States High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1942 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft