# 1970s NASA RADIO CONTROLLED DRONE & REMOTELY PILOTED VEHICLE TESTS 27434

This historic film, which is silent, shows NASA research projects in the 1970s with unmanned aircraft, drones, and remotely piloted vehicles. The film begins with shots of a radio controlled airplane flying off what appears to be the lakebed of Edwards Air Force Base. The plane is fitted with smoke pods that allow it to be seen from a great distance, assisting the operator in making a landing. At 2:22 the arrangement is shown in a close-up. At 3:15 a lifting body, probably the Hyper III, is shown being outfitted with radio antennas that allow it to be flown by remote control. The Hyper III was a full-scale lifting-body remotely piloted research vehicle (RPRV) built at what was then the NASA Flight Research Center located at Edwards Air Force Base. It flew only once in December 1969. At 3:48 the remote control cockpit is shown, with the pilot sitting on the lakebed at Dryden. It lands on the lakebed at 5:10 . At 5:25 , another ground cockpit is shown, with a drone twin-engine aircraft, the PA-30 Twin Comanche, being flown to a landing on the lakebed. The technique was first tested with the cockpit windows of the light aircraft blacked out while the pilot flew the aircraft utilizing a television monitor which gave him a "pilot's eye" view ahead of the aircraft. Later pilots flew the aircraft from a ground cockpit, a procedure used with all RPRV's. TV and two-way telemetry allow the pilot to be in constant control of the aircraft. The apparatus mounted over the cockpit is a…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Space, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/27434NASADroneRPVTestsVwr)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/27434NASADroneRPVTestsVwr?play=1)