Unmanned Aviation Timeline

1884                Nikola Tesla, father of remote control, emigrates to the United States , arriving in New York City reportedly with plans for a remotely controlled airplane.  He begins working for Thomas Edison’s company.

 

1898                Tesla submits a paper describing a remotely controlled aircraft that “…could change its direction in flight, explode at will, and …never make a miss” to the Electrical Engineer magazine.  Its editor, T.C. Martin, refuses to publish it due to its outlandishness.

 

May 1898        Tesla demonstrates his “telautomaton,” a remotely controlled boat, at an Electrical Exposition in New York City ’s Madison Square Garden .  This led to tests of a radio-controlled torpedo with the U.S. Navy in 1914-16.

 

Sep 1916         The Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, with a safety pilot onboard, successfully flies a level flight over a preset distance using Sperry’s gyroscope and distance measuring system.

 

1917                The Royal Army (A. M. Low) attempts the first radio-controlled flight of an unmanned aircraft; it crashes.

 

6 Mar 1918       A Curtiss-Sperry Aerial Torpedo, a modified Curtiss Speed Scout, makes the world’s first successful flight by an unmanned aircraft at Copiague, Long Island , New York .  Catapulted into the air, it flies its planned 1000 yards, is recovered, and flown again.

 

4 Oct 1918       An unmanned Army/Dayton-Wright Liberty Eagle makes its first flight from South Field near Dayton , Ohio , and is ordered into production by the U.S. Army.

 

17 Oct 1918     An unmanned Navy/Curtiss N-9 seaplane successfully flies an 8-mile course at 4,000 ft off Long Island .

 

22 Oct 1918     An unmanned Army/Dayton-Wright Liberty Eagle successfully flies a 1500-ft course at 200 ft, diving into its target near Dayton , Ohio .

 

1922                First launch of an unmanned aircraft (RAE 1921 Target) from a ship (HMS Argus).

 

3 Sep 1924       A Royal Aircraft Establishment 1921 Target flies for 39 minutes and is successfully recovered, the world’s first radio-controlled unmanned flight.

 

15 Sep 1924     The U.S. Navy conducts the first successful “NOLO” (no live operator) U.S. radio-controlled unmanned flight with a Curtiss N-9 seaplane, which lands after flying for 40 minutes and executing 49 of the 50 commands sent to it.

 

1933                The first use of an unmanned aircraft as a recoverable target drone is made by the Royal Navy using a radio-controlled Fairey IIIF.  This leads to the production of over 400 DeHavilland Queen Bee target drones.

 

12 Jun 1944      The world’s first cruise missile, the German Fi 103 (or V-1), is launched against England .  It would be followed by 10,500 more before 3 Mar 1945 , of which 2,400 reached their intended targets.

 

19 Oct 1944     The world’s first UCAV, a U.S. Navy/Interstate TDR-1 assault drone, successfully bombs Japanese gun emplacements on Ballale Island in the South Pacific.  It crashes on its return flight due to having been damaged by anti-aircraft fire.

 

5-6 Aug 1946  Under Operation Remote, two U.S. Army Air Force unmanned B-17s fly from Hilo , Hawaii , to Muroc (now Edwards AFB), California , covering the 4200 km in 14 hours and 55 minutes.

 

1959                U.S. Army fields the Northrop SD-1 (later the MQM-57) Observer, the first unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.  A total of 1445 were built.

 

12 Aug 1960     The world’s first unmanned helicopter, the Gyrodyne QH-50, makes its first untethered flight at the Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center, Maryland.

 

20 Aug 1964     Teledyne Ryan unmanned Firefly and Lightening Bug reconnaissance drones based on their Firebee target drone began flying missions over China and Vietnam .  A total of 3435 sorties are flown before missions end in Jun 1975.

 

4 Nov 1974      The world’s first solar-powered flight was made over Bicycle lake, California , by Robert Boucher’s 26-pound Sunrise I.

 

20-21 Aug 1998          The first successful unmanned trans-Atlantic flight is made by the Insitu Aerosonde “Laima” from Bell Island , Newfoundland , to Benbecula, Outer Hebrides , Scotland , covering 2031 miles in 26 hours 45 minutes.

 

22-23 April 2001         The first successful unmanned trans-Pacific flight is made by the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk “Southern Cross II” from Edwards AFB, California , to RAAF Edinburgh, Australia.