The Curtiss-Wright KD2C Skeet was an American target

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

produced by Curtiss-Wright for 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 ...

that began development in 1945. The KD2C-1 first flew in 1947, however it was found unsatisfactory and the program was cancelled in 1949.

Design and development

The KD2C was a

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operational ...

, powered by a pulsejet engine and intended for air-launch for use in fleet gunnery training. The KD2C-1 was powered by a Continental pulsejet engine, in diameter; the KD2C-2 used a

McDonnell The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 6, 1939, by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II ...

J-9 or J-11 pulsejet of the same diameter. Control was provided by a radio command system, assisted by a gyrostabilizer. The KD2N could reach a top speed of and had an endurance of 30 minutes.

Operational history

Begun in August 1945, the first prototype KD2C flew for the first time in 1947. The Skeet's internally mounted pulsejet proved unsatisfactory, however, as it produced low speed and high fuel consumption in both wind tunnel and flight tests at the Navy's Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, California. As a result, the KD2C program was cancelled in 1949, and the last of the produced aircraft were out of service by 1951.

Surviving aircraft

The U.S. Navy donated a surviving KD2C-2 to the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...

in 1971; it is on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Variants

;KD2C-1 :Baseline model with Continental pulsejet engine. ;KD2C-2 :Modified KD2C-1 with McDonnell pulsejet engine. ;XKD3C-1 :Developed KD2C with improved engine.

Specifications (KD2C-2)

References